Bad weather cut oil exports from Iraq's Basra ports to 864,000 barrels per day (bpd) on Saturday from 2.23 million bpd a day earlier, a shipping source said. "High winds in the Gulf are disrupting loading operations and preventing ships from leaving the port," the shipping source said.
Exports from Basra's offshore terminals, Iraq's main oil hub, tend to fluctuate because of weather or technical problems. The bulk of the country's crude exports flows through the southern ports on its small strip of the Gulf coast. Overall exports fell to 2.484 million barrels per day (bpd) in May from 2.62 million bpd in April due to a slowdown in Kirkuk oil shipments after repeated pipeline attacks and maintenance operations in the south.
Iraq shipped 2.198 million bpd from the southern oil hub of Basra compared to 2.316 million bpd in April. Officials with Iraq's state-run South Oil Company (SOC) cited maintenance at some of the crude production facilities in the south as factor reducing exports. Pumping on the northern pipeline, which carries Iraqi crude from the northern Kirkuk oilfields to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in Turkey, has been frequently disrupted by consecutive attacks by militants in Iraq. Iraq aims to double its oil output over the next three years and has a long-term goal of 12 million bpd. The Opec member is likely to manage around half that amount, industry experts say, due to infrastructure and logistical hurdles.
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