Iraq's crude oil exports from its southern Persian Gulf terminals
inched up by 28,000 b/d to 3.230 million b/d in August, provisional
data from the oil ministry showed Thursday, but continue to fall
short of previous record highs as greater volumes are allocated for
domestic use.
The average August export figure is up 4.9% year on year.
But it is down some 134,000 b/d from the record rate set in April of
3.364 million b/d, despite fine weather in the upper Gulf for the
entire month, according to daily terminal status reports from Basra.
The fall from record rates is due to increased volumes sent to local
power stations during the country's scorching summer months, as well
as its refineries.
Domestic supplies rose to 615,000 b/d in July, up 147,000 b/d
compared to April. Power plants received as much as 194,000 b/d of
crude during the month, up from just 124,000 b/d in April.
No breakdown for Basrah Heavy and Basrah Light crude exports was
given.
The status reports also showed a reduced queue of tankers at the
Gulf jetties over August. On the morning of September 1, there were
seven tankers berthed and a queue of nine tankers waiting to load,
the longest waiting time being six days. In early August, by
contrast there were 20 tankers queued up, with some waiting for 12
days before loading.
The outstanding load of these tankers, estimated at 16 million
barrels, is being spilled over to the September loading program of
3.257 million b/d. The August program was considerably lower at just
2.788 million b/d
The reduction of the overspill and waiting tankers during August
explains the relatively low SOMO August loading program of only
2.788 million b/d.
Iraq's average export price for August was $39.248/b for the month,
up $1/b from the July price of $38.30/b. Along with the higher
export rate, this pushed up the state's monthly revenues to $3.93
billion, from $3.802 billion in July.
--Faleh al-Khayat,
newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Maurice Geller,
maurice.geller@spglobal.com
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