Uptick in Iraq Oil Exports

Iraq's oil exports from its southern ports rose to an average of 3.245 million barrels per day in September, from 3.230 million in August, the oil ministry said on Saturday. OPEC's second-largest producer also exported 935,270 barrels - an average of 31,176 bpd - via pipeline to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan in September, the first full month for exports since the North Oil Company resumed pumping crude from fields it operates in Kirkuk, which the Kurdistan Regional Government controls, Reuters reported. That brought total exports for the month from fields operated by Baghdad and sold by Iraq's State Oil Marketing Company to an average of 3.276 million barrels, the ministry said in a statement. Baghdad and Erbil have agreed to split 50/50 revenues of Kirkuk flows, usually amounting to 150,000 bpd, at least until the end of the year. Besides Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurdistan produces around 500,000 bpd from its own fields and those will still be marketed independently by the semi-autonomous region.