OPEC Again Excludes Iraq from Oil Quotas
Decades of war and international sanctions have greatly hindered Iraq’s oil production potential, an issue the current government is struggling to address.
The Iraqi Ministry of Oil affirmed that Baghdad’s share in oil production will not be part of the OPEC specified quotas for 2014. The ministry said it was likely for Iraq to reach the required export rate in the next year.
Iraq is one of the founders of OPEC, an organization that brings together 12 oil exporting countries. Iraq's production quota — which was 3.8 million barrels a day — was suspended during the invasion of Kuwait as part of imposed international sanctions.
Assem Jihad, the spokesman for the Iraqi Ministry of Oil, told Al-Monitor, “The exclusion of Iraq from the ministerial decision of OPEC in regard to reducing production came as a result of the fact that Iraq already exports less than its quota requires.”
Jihad explained, “OPEC announced reducing the production of raw crude to 1.5 million barrels a day,” clarifying that Iraq will not be impacted because it “exports the oil outside the framework of specified quotas and it does not have a fixed share.”
