Iraq’s Crude Oil Production Falls Below OPEC+ Cap

The number runs counter to a Reuters report published on October 3 indicating that Iraq had exceeded its September quota by 90,000 barrels per day.

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): An Iraqi official revealed on Saturday that oil production in Iraq during September reached 3.94 million barrels per day, less than the country’s OPEC+ output limit of almost four million barrels per day.

The number runs counter to a Reuters report published on October 3 indicating that Iraq had exceeded its September quota by 90,000 barrels per day.

The official said that decreased exports, lower domestic consumption, and a drop in output from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq were the reasons production had fallen short of the OPEC+ quota, according to Reuters.

In late August, a source said that the Iraqi government plans to reduce the country’s oil production to between 3.85 million and 3.9 million barrels per day in September.

The step is part of an agreement reached with the OPEC+ alliance to offset overproduction.

OPEC said in August that it received updated compensation plans from Iraq and Kazakhstan for their overproduced volumes for the first seven months of 2024.

According to assessments made by independent sources, OPEC said that Iraq overproduced 1.44 million barrels per day from January to July, and Kazakhstan overproduced 699,000 barrels per day.

In order to maintain the market, OPEC and other producers, notably Russia, have begun a series of output reductions in late 2022, the majority of which will remain in effect until the end of 2025.

The Iraqi Ministry of Oil mentioned in a statement that it had sent a revised compensation plan to the OPEC Secretariat and that it has taken concrete efforts to lower production levels in order to make up for the quantities that had previously exceeded the production limits.

The step demonstrates Iraq’s commitment to enhancing the joint efforts of the OPEC+ group in order to preserve stability in the global oil market and protect the interests of both oil producers and consumers.

Courtesy: www.iraqinews.com