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  • Nov 2nd, 2005
  • Comments Off on Iraq’s oil exports fall to two-year low
Iraqi oil exports in October slumped to their lowest level for two years as bad weather disrupted exports from the south and sabotage stopped shipments from the north via Turkey, shipping sources said on Tuesday.

Iraq's oil exports totalled 1.24 million barrels per day (bpd) in October, the lowest since November 2003 when the country exported 1.22 million bpd. Exports were down 280,000 bpd from September.

The fall was mostly due to weather-inflicted delays at Iraq's main Basra oil terminal in the south. Basra shut for four days during the month, when sandstorms and wild seas prevented vessels from docking.

Around 38.4 million barrels of crude were exported from the sourthern Basra and Khor al-Amaya terminals in October, down from 41.8 million barrels in September.

The pipeline from Iraq's Kirkuk crude oil fields in the north was also idled throughout October due to sabotage attacks, so there were no exports through Turkey's Ceyhan terminal.

In September, Iraq exported around 3.9 million barrels through Ceyhan.

The pipeline briefly restarted in October in Iraq, before four blasts halted exports. One shipper said the crude failed to reach as far as Ceyhan during the short period that the pipeline operated.

Copyright Reuters, 2005


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