Iraq's oil exports fall in March affected by Kirkuks’ stop of supply

However, industry sources say that the sustainability of this activity of oil exports in doubted because the exports of Kirkuk crude from northern Iraq has fallen due to acts of sabotage which predicts that the totality of Iraq's exports will decline from record levels that had been achieved last month .

The navigation data reported by Reuters , briefed by " Shafaq News " that exports from Iraq's southern ports amounted to an average of 2.47 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first twenty-five days of March . According to an industry source follows also similarly recognized exports and said that the delays in loading and shipping operations have shrunk .

The source said " exports reached so far about 2.5 million barrels per day, and delays of no more than a few days ." This is equivalent to the amount of exports from the southern fields in February , which amounted to 2.5 million barrels per day at its highest level since 1979.

Iraq had boosted its energy in the southern ports , which usually almost all of Iraq's oil exports passes through them. From the north Iraq also export crude from Kirkuk to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea in Turkey .

The northern pipeline had also been subjected to frequent stop of flow of oil and subjected to attacks by 54 times by the rebels last year, which reduced the level of exports from Kirkuk.

Sources in NOC said last week that sabotage caused the stop of oil flow in the pipeline in early March but the escalation of violence prevented technicians from reforming the damage .

As a result for that , industry sources said that one tanker and one shipment were exported from Kirkuk through the pipeline in March, which means that the daily average reached 30 thousand barrels per day , down from 300 thousand barrels per day in February .

Thus the Iraqi exports reached little more than 2.5 million barrels per day in March , down from February 's level of 2.8 million barrels per day , which was described by the Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Hussain al-Shahristani as a high standard rate.

North exports may increase if Kurdistan region began to export oil through the pipeline to Turkey . But the old conflict between Baghdad and Erbil was not solved yet.

Whatever the case , Kurdistan has agreed to export 100 thousand barrels per day through a network of pipelines of Iraq in April " as a gesture of goodwill " with the continuation of negotiations between the two sides .