Posted on 07/27/2003 4:32:45 PM PDT by blam
Iraq oil output tops 1m barrels
By Adam Jay (Filed: 28/07/2003)
Iraq's oil production has risen to more than a million barrels a day, it emerged yesterday, as the country signed new crude export contracts with foreign oil companies, mainly from the US.
An Iraqi oil ministry official said that daily production, which has been steady at 800,000 barrels since the end of the war, has now increased.
"Production in the south is between 600,000 and 700,000 barrels a day and production in the north is at 500,000 barrels a day," the official said. "Production in the south could reach one million barrels a day in a month."
The news will be a relief to the market, which has been disappointed at the slow pace of getting Iraq's oil moving again after the war. Iraqi production is still well below the 2m barrels a day that were being exported before the outbreak of war under the oil for food programme and recent events led to a sharp fall in the price of crude oil.
On Tuesday, when news of the deaths of Uday and Qusay Hussein reached the International Petroleum Exchange in London, the benchmark price dropped by more than a dollar to $27.65, although it had recovered by Friday to close at $28.15.
A spokesman at Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation said that a new batch of export contracts have been signed. They are the second set since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the first having been finalised last week.
The deals, for August 1 to December 31, are with Shell, Total Fina Elf, Chevron Texaco, Conoco Phillips, Valero Energy, Marathon Oil, China's Sinochem and a subsidiary from Japan's Mitsubishi. A contract with Exxon Mobil is expected soon.
/john
/john
/john
OPEC nations frequently exceed their quotas, which are voluntary. There is no hard enforcement mechanism to keep the member nations in line.
/john
The deals, for August 1 to December 31, are with Shell, Total Fina Elf, Chevron Texaco, Conoco Phillips, Valero Energy, Marathon Oil, China's Sinochem and a subsidiary from Japan's Mitsubishi. A contract with Exxon Mobil is expected soon.
What's up with that? Don't we have the guts to cut them out of the deal?
I do but, it's about the oil/$$$.<>
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