Baghdad: Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair announced on Sunday that efforts have successfully raised oil exports to over 4 million barrels per day. He also noted that current product output stands at 37 million liters daily, an increase of 4 million liters.
According to Iraqi News Agency, the Parliament’s Media Directorate stated in a release that the Council of Representatives, in its nineteenth session chaired by Haibat al-Halbousi and attended by 232 MPs, discussed the domestic fuel crisis across Iraqi governorates. The session aimed to examine the crisis’s causes and repercussions and to review government measures to address it, featuring the Oil Minister and senior ministry officials.
The statement quoted the Oil Minister as saying that when he assumed office, oil exports did not exceed 200,000 barrels per day due to wartime conditions in the Gulf region; however, the Ministry has now succeeded in exporting over 4 million barrels daily. He noted that these exports include transporting required quantities from Kirkuk Governorate to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
The Minister indicated that current product output is 37 million liters per day, an increase of 4 million liters, intended to meet the surge in demand that triggered the crisis. He explained that difficulties in importing gasoline due to wartime conditions had created a gap between production and consumption, noting that strategic gasoline reserves stood at 350 million liters. He further clarified that an additional 5 million liters of gasoline per day are required to bridge the deficit between refinery output and consumption.
The Oil Minister noted that “the solution lies in importing additional gasoline shipments this year, a strategy the Ministry is pursuing by contacting relevant authorities in various countries to secure supplies needed due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, alongside completing maintenance on the FCC unit in Basra and continuing gasoline imports.” He added that “the Ministry is seeking to attract investment companies to overcome obstacles and resolve the crisis.”
For his part, the Director General of the Oil Ministry’s Distribution Company stated that “current gasoline stocks have reached 107 million liters. Production in August stood at 28.857 million liters, while imports totaled 3.907 million liters, against a domestic consumption volume of 34.540 million liters.”
The Speaker of Parliament addressed an inquiry to the Director General of the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) regarding the discounts offered on Iraqi oil relative to global prices and export capacities. The SOMO Director General explained that export capacity for the day reached 4.254 million barrels, noting that “the Ministry bases its oil sales on the number of tankers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, while exercising precision in dealing with companies competing to purchase Iraqi oil.”
He explained that “discounts depend on the competition among shipping companies capable of fulfilling their contracts during the crisis following negotiations; the discount stands at $26.5 for medium-grade oil and $28 for heavy oil.” He noted that “current domestic demand requires the import of 5 million liters of gasoline daily to bridge the gap between production and consumption and meet public needs,” adding that “Iraq is currently importing additional quantities of gasoline from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Europe via Syria.”