Iraq experienced a delay in improving its oil export facilities in Basra, which also delayed the planned increase in the second largest producer oil export capacity OPEC, an oil source in Iraq told Reuters on Wednesday.Iraq plans to increase the capacity of crude oil exports in the Port of his Gulf to 3.45 million barrels per day (BPD) from 3.3 million BPD.
However, Iraq has seen in the last few weeks of delay in completing the tender to increase the pump station at the export terminal and in obtaining the required approval for work, a representative from the Iraqi oil industry told Reuters.Delay in increasing the export capacity of 150,000-BPD came when the world wrestled with constraints in physical oil supply even though the current bearish sentiment in the oil market.In June, Iraqi oil exports averaged 3.37 million BPD, per Iraqi Oil Ministry quoted by Xinhua.
Delay in increasing the pump station means that the Basra Oil Company (BOC) of Iraqi state will not be able to increase exports to 3.45 million BPD in the coming weeks.”I am not sure whether the BOC can meet this deadline because of the delay in the project [pump station],” Iraq oil source told Reuters.Without an increase, Iraq’s crude oil exports will remain around 3.3 million BPD, the source said.
In terms of production, Iraq is 75,000 BPD under its target for June, according to the OPEC secondary source in the Monthly Oil Market Report (Momr) issued on Tuesday. Ten OPEC producers bound by OPEC+ Pact pumping 24.8 million BPD crude oil in June, which is 1 million short BPDs from the target level.
Although an increase in the capacity of Iraq 150,000-BPD is relatively small, every obstacle in raw supply can tighten the global oil market later this year, when the EU embargo in sea imports from Russian crude oil and processed products come into force.