Eric Watkins
Oil Diplomacy Editor
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 16 -- Iraq has resumed oil exports following a storm that shut in the southern port of Basra and the completion of repairs to the bomb-damaged northern pipeline that carries crude from the northern Kirkuk fields to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.
On Sept. 15, Iraqi oil exports stood at some 1.53 million b/d, up from 860,000 b/d the previous day, according to shipping agents. But the flow of exports from Basra was still lower than the normal average of 1.6 million b/d.
Oil flowed at 450,000 b/d via the country's northern pipeline system, while exports rose to 1.08 million b/d at Basra and the nearby Khor al-Amaya facility as operations at both facilities began to recover after a storm.
Oil exports at Basra slowed to 860,000 b/d on Sept. 14 and 15, down from 1.68 million b/d on Sept. 13, according to shipping agents. Officials stressed that the reduced throughput was due only to bad weather.
"There is a storm in the south that has contributed to the delay of exports," said one official. "It's just a storm, nothing else."
Meanwhile, until the completion of repairs in the north, Iraq had suspended shipments of crude oil along pipeline route since Sept. 10 following an explosion on the line, according to government officials.
"A bomb hit a pipeline transporting crude to Ceyhan in Turkey and halted exports on [Sept. 10]. The blast occurred in an area called Hadhar," said a spokesperson for the state-owned North Oil Co.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
