Iraq expands southern export capacity

BASRA - Iraq has started operating a fourth single point mooring (SPM) buoy and brought back the Khor al-Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT) after 10 months offline, adding more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) of potential export capacity, though onshore bottlenecks mean that only a fraction of that will be immediately available.

The additional SPM alone may help increase southern Iraq exports by 200,000 bpd, which Oil Minister Jabbar al-Luiebi ordered according to an Oil Ministry statement over the weekend.