BAGHDAD, April 6 (UPI) -- Iraqi oil exports of around 92 million barrels per day last month were the highest yet this year, with most of that leaving southern ports, the government said.
Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said total exports for March were 92.4 million barrels, which is the highest for any month yet this year. Roughly 90 percent of all exports leave the country through the southern port city of Basra. Most of the rest was shipped across the border to Turkish ports on the Mediterranean Sea.
The spokesman said bad weather in and around Basra curtailed some of the export potential and the ministry was working to make up for any shortages.
According to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, total Iraqi oil production for February was down slightly from the previous month to around 3.3 million barrels per day.
Military forces in parts of northern Iraq are working to suppress the rise of the group calling itself the Islamic State. Violence attributed to the group last year forced some energy companies to suspend operations, though much of southern Iraq has been spared from the conflict.
Simmering disputes over payment curtailed some exports from the semiautonomous Kurdish north of Iraq. Both sides in December reached a deal to end the impasse over who controls what parts of the oil sector in the country.
For the south, Lukoil, Russia's largest private oil company, signed a contract revision last year to build two 75-mile long pipelines and associated infrastructure. The system will link the West Qurna oil field to an export terminal in Basra, situated along the coast of the Persian Gulf.
