OPEC agrees to increase Iraq’s quota to 4.5 million barrels per day
Oil field in Iraq. Reuters image.
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – The representative of Iraq at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) confirmed on Saturday that the organization agreed to a new increase in the country’s production of oil starting from July, according to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The Iraqi representative at OPEC, Muhammad Saadoun, in his statement published by INA, explained that Iraq’s production ceiling will reach 4.5 million barrels per day in July.
“Iraq has the right to increase its oil production according to the production ceiling, there will be other increases of 50 thousand barrels in each of August and September, and thus, Iraq reaches its production normal level,” Saadoun clarified in his statement.
Saadoun indicated that the plans of the Iraqi Ministry of Oil include gradual increase of production in addition to investment of this increase.
According to statistics issued by the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), the average quantity Iraq exported per day was 3.38 million barrels during April.
According to Saadoun’s statement, estimations indicate that the average of oil price will remain above 100 USD per barrel until the third quarter of 2022.
According to OPEC Secretariat calculations, the price of OPEC basket of thirteen crudes stood at 109.30 USD per barrel on Thursday compared to 109.02 USD the previous day.