Iraq said it exported 1.097 billion barrels of oil in 2015, generating $49.079 billion from sales, according to its oil ministry. It sold 99.7 million barrels of oil in December, generating $2.973 billion, after selling a record 100.9 million barrels in November, said oil ministry spokesman, Asim Jihad, Bloomberg reported. The country sold at an average price of $44.74 a barrel in 2015, Jihad said. Iraq, with the world’s fifth-biggest oil reserves, needs to keep increasing crude output because lower oil prices have curbed government revenue. Oil prices have slumped in the past year, as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries defended market share against production in the US. OPEC’s second-largest crude producer is facing a slowdown in investment due to lower oil prices while fighting a costly war on the self-styled Islamist State militants who seized a swath of the country’s northwest. The nation’s output will start to decline in 2018, Morgan Stanley said in a Sept. 2 report, reversing its forecast for higher production every year to 2020.
