Lower prices have brought Federal Iraq’s oil export revenues down for the first half of this year, despite Baghdad keeping export levels relatively flat. Lower gas prices have enabled Iraq to boost sales of its high-sulfur Basrah crudes to Europe.

Federal Iraq’s crude oil export revenues over the first half of 2023 came in at $44.37bn, down sharply on the same period in 2022 when prices skyrocketed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Prices have dropped markedly since late 2022, and revenues for 2023 as a whole look set to come in well below last year’s record $115bn.

Overall export volumes have also dropped modestly year-on-year, but the 11,000 b/d fall to 3.291mn b/d was a much less important factor than the $28.17/B reduction in realized oil prices from $102.72/B to $74.55/B. All exports since late-March have been seaborne cargoes from Iraq’s southern Basra terminals due to the continued shutdown of Kurdistan’s pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan export terminal, which typically carried up to 100,000 b/d of exports from federal oil marketer Somo in addition to around 400,000 b/d of independently-marketed ‘Kurdish’ crude.