Iraq averaged production of 2.4 million barrels per day in November, according to the global energy information firm Platts. That’s nearly a half million more than the post-2003 average. Oil exports, around 1.9 million bpd, fund nearly the entire federal budget.
“It was still a challenging year but they still managed to make some inroads,” said Robert Fryklund, vice president of industry relations for energy consultant firm IHS. “We still have that issue of trying to get the national legislation up and running, and it seems to be stuck at the moment while they try to work out a few more of the security issues and other issues.”
Read the 2007 recap of Iraq’s oil sector HERE.
The Canadian Press has the latest on Iraq’s Oil Ministry threatening to stop selling oil to South Korea if they move forward on the oil deal a South Korea consortium signed with the Kurdistan Regional Government.
A consortium led by the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. secured exploration rights in early November from the semiautonomous Kurdish regional government for an oil field in the northern province. The Korean consortium includes SK Energy, South Korea’s biggest oil refiner, and GS Holdings Corp.
“The ministry has made it clear that no contracts should be signed until a new national oil law is passed,” Assem Jiham, a ministry spokesman, told The Associated Press late Thursday. “There was a clear warning to these companies that they will be blacklisted and excluded from any future cooperation with the ministry.”
He said there would be “no leniency” shown to any company signs such contracts.
According to KNOC, through November South Korea had imported 42 million barrels of oil from Iraq, nearly triple all its imports from the country last year. Iraq is the sixth-largest provider of oil to the country.
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