Iraqi oil exports rose in January compared to the previous month but revenue fell by more than $650 million due to plunging crude prices, the oil ministry said on Monday. Baghdad is facing a financial crisis due to the fall in oil prices, which the ministry said averaged $22.21 in January - less than half the amount projected in the 2016 budget.
Iraq exported an average of 3.28 million barrels per day in January, up from 3.21 million in December, but monthly revenue fell from $2.92 billion to $2.26 billion, the ministry said in a statement. The decrease was due to the fall in oil prices, which averaged around $29 in December.
Neither month included oil exports from northern Iraq through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, the ministry said. That is because Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region has been independently exporting oil from four northern provinces since a deal between it and the federal government collapsed last year.