Who Gains From Russian Oil Sanctions: Iraq Increases Revenue From Oil Exports
Iraq raked in more than $115 billion in oil revenues last year, according to data released this week by the country's oil ministry. This figure comes from crude oil exports of 1.209 billion barrels last year, or an average of 3.320 million barrels per day.
The data came a day after the Iraqi National Security Agency said it was investigating the smuggling of crude oil and petroleum products amounting to about 470,000 barrels a month, with 49 accused, including officers, associates traders and smugglers. So the remarkable growth in exports, a record for four years in this part, has occurred despite the thefts.
Last October, Iraq said it had dismantled the largest oil smuggling network in the Basra governorate. At the time, Prime Minister Mohammed Shiyaa Al-Sudani promised to "trace down oil smuggling networks and issue arrest warrants against gangs who dare to steal Iraqi rights."
Smugglers stole and smuggled the oil by drilling holes in the export lines for crude oil at the Zubair field. Some of the accused are senior officers of the energy police force charged with protecting oil infrastructure.
Sanctions on Russian oil had a large part of the credit for achieving this result, also thanks to the increase in oil prices following the invasion of Ukraine.
As OPEC's second largest crude producer, with production of 4.5 million bpd in the third quarter, oil revenues account for almost all of Baghdad's revenues.
Iraq's oil revenues fell to just $42 billion in 2020, according to Al-Monitor, as the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia collided with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, tumbling crude oil prices. In 2021, Iraq's oil revenue climbed back to $75.6 billion and is now over $115 billion, enough money to solve some of the country's problems.
Iraq is home to the world's fifth-largest oil reserves, at 145 billion barrels, and is China's third-largest source of crude, behind only Saudi Arabia and Russia.
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The article Who Gains From Russian Oil Sanctions: Iraq Increases Revenue From Oil Exports comes from Scenari Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/chi-guadagna-dalle-sanzioni-al-petrolio-russo-liraq-accresce-gli-introiti-dallexport-di-petrolio/ on Wed, 04 Jan 2023 09:00:30 +0000.