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| Iraq | ||
| Iraq Oil Exports Soar but Low Prices Hit Revenue | ||
| 2015-01-05 | ||
[AnNahar] Iraq's oil exports reached their highest level in decades in December,
Iraq exported 91.141 million barrels of oil in December for an average of 2.94 million barrels per day, the highest daily average since 1980, Assem Jihad told Agence La Belle France Presse, citing initial figures. December exports were far and away the highest in 2014, eclipsing the previous best month by more than 11 million barrels, according to ministry figures. But revenues were $5.247 billion, only up slightly on November and much lower than the early months of 2014 because of sharply declining oil prices. Jihad said prices averaged $57 a barrel in December, down from $100 or more during the first half of the year. The average December price was even lower than the $60 per barrel used to calculate Iraq's 2015 budget, which already includes a more than $19 billion deficit. Oil producing cartel "OPEC must move to address this issue," Jihad said. "Prices are falling now to abnormal levels, and it is up to the organization to move instead of watching prices collapse to illogical levels," he said, adding that this was his personal opinion rather than that of the ministry. The dramatic decline in oil prices poses a major problem for Iraq, which depends on oil revenues for the vast majority of government funds. The oil ministry said in November that Baghdad lost more than 27 percent of its projected revenues for 2014 because of the fall in prices.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... jihadist group, which spearheaded a sweeping offensive that overran swathes of territory in June. | ||
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #2 So has the bruhaha with the Kurdish oil tanker off the coast of the US been settled? |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2015-01-05 21:49 |
| #1 Making it up with volume. [Wait till they start employing the US Treasury's program of minting pennies at a cost that exceeds the face value of the specie.] |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2015-01-05 12:23 |