Iraq : oil exports’ decline for the second month in a row

“Iraq's oil exports during June amounted to 69.8 million barrels and has achieved revenues of 6,799 $ billion dollars,” The ministry said in a statement to “Shafaq News”.

The statement quoted the ministry’s spokesman, Assem Jihad as saying that "the average selling price was 97.407 $ per barrel."

The Iraqi oil exports during the past month of May were amounted to 76.9 million barrels, and achieved revenues of 7,477 billion $.

“Oil exports over the past month have witnessed a slight decrease due to bad weather in the southern ports and sabotage operations on the transport pipeline from Kirkuk to the Turkish port of Ceyhan,” Jihad said.

Iraq, in which its budget depends mainly on oil exports, is seeking to raise production from 3.4 million barrels currently to nine million barrels by 2017.

Iraq has the third largest oil reserves in the world, estimated at 143 billion barrels, after Saudi Arabia and Iran.