Iraqi Oil Minister: We are committed to OPEC decisions, will not produce more than 4 million bpd

Hayyan Abdul Ghani, the Iraqi Oil Minister, said on Monday that Iraq is committed to the decisions of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) regarding production, and is also committed after announcing its second voluntary reduction in December by not producing more than four million barrels per day.

According to Reuters, the minister stated that Iraq’s current exports range between 3.35 to 3.4 million barrels per day.

He revealed progress in talks with international oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan regarding resolving a dispute that has halted the export of oil from northern Iraq.

Abdul Ghani added that the resumption of exports from Iraqi Kurdistan is linked to the resumption of production from fields in the region, and that talks with companies operating in the region are close to reaching a solution in the near future.

The Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister for Extraction Affairs said in November that the resumption of crude oil exports from the north depends on renegotiating current production-sharing contracts to change them into profit-sharing contracts.

On March 25, Turkey stopped exports to northern Iraq amounting to 450,000 barrels per day after a ruling issued by the International Chamber of Commerce in an arbitration case in which Ankara was ordered to pay compensation to Baghdad for the damage it suffered from unauthorized exports between 2014 and 2018.