Baghdad is proceeding to sell 48 million Oil barrels to China by prepayment deal

Shafaq News / The financial advisor to the Prime Minister, Mazhar Muhammad Salih, said that the Baghdad-Beijing agreement to sell 48 million barrels by pre-payment method aims to support the federal budget.

"Al-Sabah" newspaper quoted Saleh today, Wednesday, as saying, "the agreement that the Ministry of Oil and Chinese governmental oil companies will conclude stipulates that the Ministry of Finance receives the sums of selling 48 million barrels immediately. The sold oil will be delivered six months after concluding the deal and will be exported via monthly batches over 12 months, four million barrels per month."

 He added, "The price will be determined one month after signing of the agreement, and the average price of oil in that month will be standardized for the purchase price of the sold quantities. The sums will be transferred to the Ministry of Finance upon this basis in cash six months prior to the export."

 Saleh explained, "the agreement is a kind of borrowing in exchange for oil. It is called pre-financed oil export in order to support the liquidity of the general budget," noting, "the Ministry of Oil is studying the offers made by participants in the pre-paid oil deal."

 "The loan mentioned above comes within the framework of the recently voted on borrowing law, which granted the executive authority the power to obtain external loans to support strategic and important investment projects."