Iraq exported 2.225 million b/d of crude oil in May, up 84,000 b/d from April and the highest level since the 2003 war, as loadings from the south picked up, figures obtained from State Oil Marketing Organization SOMO showed.
Southern exports rose by 69,000 b/d in May to 1.725 million b/d while northern supply through the Turkish port of Ceyhan was up at 500,000 b/d, a 49,000 b/d increase over the previous month.
Northern exports were boosted by the steady rise in Kurdish output following the resumption of crude exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region on February 2.
Out of the total exported through the northern pipeline system, 490,000 b/d was exported from Ceyhan and 10,000 b/d by tanker trucks to Jordan.
Platts extrapolates from the export figures that wellhead production in May rose to 2.665 million b/d, up from 2.624 million b/d in April. The figure excludes fuel oil and other residue mixed in with the crude export blend, supply to local refineries and movement into stocks.
Production from the south is estimated at 1.955 million b/d, a 70,000 b/d increase over actual April output. Northern production was calculated at 710,000 b/d, slightly below actual output of 739,000 b/d in April. of which Kurdish output accounted for 135,000 b/d of the northern total, up from 120,000 b/d in April as output from the key producing fields of Tawke and Taq Taq was ramped up.
The estimated fall in northern production is attributed to the latest decline in production from the giant Kirkuk oil field.
Industry sources said that there was currently an estimated 4.3 million barrels of crude in storage in the south at the end of May, up from 3.7 million barrels at the end of the previous month. They said the rise in stock levels indicates that the southern export system, which is being expanded, cannot at present handle the all the incremental crude being produced from the three key fields of Rumaila, Zubair and West Qurna 1, which are being developed by foreign oil companies under long-term service contracts.
