Iraqi Oil Ministry Refutes Asking for Exemption From OPEC+ Oil Cut Obligations

MOSCOW, September 3– The Iraqi Oil Ministry denied reports that Baghdad sought to be exempted from the implementation of the OPEC+ agreement to reduce the crude oil production in the first quarter of 2021.. The Ministry of Oil would like to categorically deny this baseless statement, and affirm that, to the contrary, Iraq remains fully committed to the April OPEC+…

MOSCOW, September 3 (Sputnik) – The Iraqi Oil Ministry denied reports that Baghdad sought to be exempted from the implementation of the OPEC+ agreement to reduce the crude oil production in the first quarter of 2021.

On Wednesday morning, Iraq’s as-Sabah newspaper reported, citing Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar, that Baghdad’s possible exemption from the OPEC+ commitments had been discussed with major oil producers during three meetings.

“A false statement has been circulating in the media today, attributed to HE the Iraqi Minister of Oil that the Republic of Iraq would be seeking an exemption on production limits agreed under the OPEC+ Declaration of Cooperation. The Ministry of Oil would like to categorically deny this baseless statement, and affirm that, to the contrary, Iraq remains fully committed to the April OPEC+ Declaration of Cooperation,” the ministry said in the late hours of Wednesday in a statement.

Iraq’s compliance with the oil output agreement in August surpassed 100 percent, compensating for its previous overproduction of 850,000 barrels per day, the statement read.

If Iraq is unable to compensate for extra oil output volumes by the end of September, it will ask the OPEC+ Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee to extend the compensation period until the end of November immediately after the September 17 meeting, the ministry said.

Earlier in the week, the oil ministry said that it had exported 80.494 million barrels of crude oil in August, which is six percent down from the previous month.