Iraq Tells Oil Fields to Start Lifting Output After US-Iran Deal
(Bloomberg) -- Iraq asked operators of five major oil fields to boost production to prewar levels, targeting output of over 3 million barrels a day, after US-Iran deal that aims to fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Basra Oil Co. requested lifting output to the maximum available capacity at the Rumaila, West Qurna-1, West Qurna-2, Zubair and Artawi fields, according to a document dated June 19 seen by Bloomberg. The return to higher production will be gradual, and will depend on operational conditions and buyers arranging tankers for loading, Oil Ministry spokesman Salim Al-Rikabi told Bloomberg.
The boss of Iraq’s state oil-marketing company SOMO, Ali Nizar, said separately in an interview with Iraq 24 television that two ships are currently loading at the country’s southern terminal but that more would need to enter Hormuz for output to keep rising.
OPEC’s second-largest producer saw its oil exports plummet after the US-Iran war caused marine traffic through the trait to come to an almost complete halt. Iraq is dependent on the waterway for the bulk its crude exports and has only limited capacity to ship oil through pipelines over land that some of its neighbors used at the height of the crisis.
Still, production in the country’s petroleum heartland in the south, where the five fields are located, has already climbed to 1.5 million barrels a day in recent days, a senior executive said this week.
Companies that have been requested to start lifting output from the fields have already begun work to increase production, Al-Rikabi said. The focus currently is on fields that pump associated gas with that would support local demand for power generation and cooking fuel.
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