Iraq says oil exports unaffected by war
Iraq said on Wednesday its oil exports are flowing normally through Hormuz Straits despite the escalating mutual attacks between nearby Iran and Israel.
Most of the crude exports by OPEC's second largest oil producer pass through Hormuz, which Iran has frequently threatened to block over the past years.
Iraq produced just over four million barrels per day (bpd) in May and exported nearly 3.3 million bpd, mostly to China and India, according to the Iraqi Oil Ministry.
'Iraq's oil exports have not been affected by the conflict between Iran and Israel…I don't think they will be affected because they are far from the centre of the hostilities…Iraq's oil exports are still flowing out normally,' said Shada Al-Izzawi, a member of Iraqi parliament's oil and gas committee.
'The attacks by two countries against each other have not yet affected any oil site or export terminal in Iraq,' she told the official daily Alsabah.
Izzawi did not make clear how Iraq will continue to export crude to the global market if Iran carries out its threat and shut Hormuz, a strategic narrow water way through which more than 18 million bpd pass, nearly a fifth of the world's oil consumption.
But an Iraqi oil analyst said the Iran-Israel conflict should prompt Baghdad to reach agreement with the northern Kurdistan region to re-open the 970-km Kurkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has an export capacity of nearly 400,000 bpd.
'Iraq should intensify efforts to reopen the Cayman pipeline to export an additional 400,000 through Turkey…this will give Iraq's crude exports more flexibility in case the conflict in the regional escalates further,' said Nabil Al-Marsoumi, an energy and economics professor at Basra university in South Iraq.
Another well-known Iraqi expert, Hilal Al-Taan, told Shafaq news agency that Iraq's crude exports could be virtually come to a standstill if Hormuz is shut.
(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)
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