Oil exports of Iraq’s Kurdistan region touch 18 million barrels in December 2015

Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region exported roughly 18.1 million barrels of crude oil in December, the region’s local government said in a report recently.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) exported 18,105,734 barrels of crude oil with an average of 584,056 barrels per day, in the month of December through the Kurdistan pipeline network to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey,” according to the report published by Rudaw media network.

The report prepared by the region’s Ministry of Natural Resources said that fields operated by the KRG contributed 13,504,536 barrels (435,630 bpd on average), while the ones operated by the Iraqi government’s North Oil Company contributed 4,601,198 barrels (an average of 148,426 bpd).

The report also stated that theft and sabotage had contributed to “downtime” of the export pipeline for three days. “Due to circumstances beyond the KRG’s control, during December, there were three days of downtime for the export pipeline, caused mainly by attempts at sabotage and theft,” Rudaw quotes the report as saying.

December’s exports were slightly higher than November, when exports stood at 18,023,075 barrels of crude oil.