Iraq’s 2008 oil revenues hit $60b – ministry

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: An Iraqi oil official on Thursday said that the country’s oil revenues were up over 30 percent last year — to about $60 billion — despite the sharp decline in world prices in the last half of the year. Fahd al-Amiri, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organization, also told The Associated Press on Thursday that Iraq’s oil exports averaged 1.85 million barrels a day in 2008 — a 13.5 percent increase from 2007. He says December’s export levels reached about 1.815 million barrels per day. He expects Iraq to export 2 million barrels per day this month. Iraq depends on oil revenues for nearly 95 percent of its budget. It has suffered as oil prices have plunged roughly 70 percent from record highs of almost $150 last July. Proceeds from crude oil exports during 2007 hit $39.8 billion, according to a release by the ministry’s media office early last year. Oil revenues make up to 95% of Iraq’s budget. The country had suffered from a sharp plunge in oil prices to 70% from a record high of $150 per barrel last July. The Iraqi government had decided to cut $13 billion of its draft budget in light of the declining oil prices that currently went down to nearly $47 per barrel and might reconsider its budget for the third time as the second edition of the state budget was approved on a notion of $50 per barrel. The Iraqi finance ministry’s budget department had announced in September 2007 that the country’s budget for 2009 was made based on appropriating $80 as a rate of one barrel of crude oil and a production capacity of 2 million barrels per day (bpd) at a total sum of 94.665 trillion Iraqi dinars, tantamount to $70.88 billion, distributed over $60.26 billion for operational expenditure and $18.62 for investment expenditure. AmR (S) 1