Record oil exports from Iraq in March

In March Iraq’s oil exports soared to the highest level they have reached since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, according to the country’s oil ministry. It confirmed that exports out of Iraq’s southern terminals in March reached 2.7 million barrels per day (bpd), while exports from the north via the Kurdistan pipeline were 268,000 bpd.

Selling at $48.24 per barrel, oil shipments in March generated a total of $4.45 billion. The exports, helped by fair weather at Basra which improved the loading rate for tankers, jumped 15 percent over the previous month’s figures.

The southern oilfields, being developed with the help of foreign oil companies, produce the bulk of Iraq's oil and the terminals are its main outlet to world markets. Comfortably distanced from those parts of the country disrupted by Islamic State, they have kept pumping in spite of the conflict.