S Iraq Pwr Cuts Lower Aug Oil Exports To 0.5M B/D-Source
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
BAGHDAD -- Southern Iraq's power crisis has reduced August exports of Basra Light crude oil to 500,000 barrels a day from the 600,000-700,000 b/d predicted at the end of July, an oil ministry source said Tuesday.
Sabotage and looting in recent weeks has reduced power supplies to many key oil facilities in the south, delaying the pumping of crude to the loading terminal of Mina al-Bakr in the Persian Gulf.
Although loadings have improved now from a few days ago, when it was taking up to four days to load a supertanker from the typical one and a half days, it has hit the export average for the first 18 days of August, the source said.
"Loadings at Mina al-Bakr have improved, but they're still dependent on electricity supplies," the source said.
Sabotage of Iraq's main export pipeline to Turkey from the northern oilfields of Kirkuk is likely to put the line out of action for weeks while it is being repaired, the source added.
"It's hard to say how long exactly it will take but it's going to be weeks," the source said, without elaborating.
Saturday, Iraq's oil minister, Thamer al-Ghadban, said it could take a week to fix the Turkey pipeline once the fires were extinguished. But later in the day a second fire broke out on the pipeline and has also been identified as sabotage.
The incidents happened only two days after the pipeline, which had been at a standstill since April, was reopened.
Iraq's oil ministry was targeting an average of 1.5 million b/d output this month, with exports to average 600,000-700,000 b/d from the south and another 200,000-300,000 b/d from the north.
Iraq is relying on revenues from oil sales to pay for reconstruction of the country. |
