Iraq delays export platform installation

BASRA - Iraq is delaying the installation of a major component of its new southern export infrastructure by at least a month.

The Oil Ministry had been expecting to bring a new Combined Metering and Manifold Platform into the Basra Gulf in September. The complex installation operation would have temporarily hampered tanker traffic to and from loading platforms, and was expected to take between 400,000 and 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of export capacity offline.