Iraq says should be exempted from OPEC output freeze

Iraq’s Oil Minister Jabar Ali al-Luaibi said on Sunday his country should be exempted from output restrictions as it was fighting a war with ISIS.

“We are fighting a vicious war against ISIS,” Luaibi said in a briefing for reporters, adding that Iraq should get the same exemption as Nigeria and Libya.

Falah al-Amiri, head of Iraq state oil marketer SOMO, said Iraq’s market share was compromised by the various wars it fought since the eighties. He added: “We should be producing 9 million if it wasn’t for the wars.”

“Some countries took our market share,” he said stressing that this was why Iraq refused to cut back output.

Luaibi said Iraq would make its case at OPEC “in a pleasant environment” to avoid tension.

Output at 4.774 mln bpd in September

Iraq’s deputy oil minister Fayadh al-Nema said total oil production, including output in the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) area, stood at 4.774 million barrels per day (bpd).

Of the total 4.228 million bpd were produced from Baghdad-controlled fields and 546 million bpd were from the KRG-controlled fields, Nehma told reporters at a briefing in Baghdad.

Total exports for September, including the KRG, were 3.871 million bpd, the head of Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Company Falah al-Amri said, stressing that his country would not cut back on production.

“We have surpassed the 4.7 million and there is no doubt about that we are not going back in any way, not by OPEC not by anybody else,” Amri said.