Falling exports amid major modernisation works in the southern port of Basra cut Iraq’s oil exports by 22% m/m and 20% y/y to 62.1mn barrels in September 2013, official data from the state-owned Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) showed. Output and exports from the Kirkuk region also retreated albeit at a slower pace.
Oil proceeds, consequently, fell 22% m/m to USD 6.51bn in September. The average oil price per barrel stood at USD 104.84, nearly the same as in August.
Exports from the southern Basra oil fields and ports shrank 25% m/m to 54.6mn barrels. Sales from the Kirkuk oil fields in northern Iraq retreated to 7.5mn barrels in September from 8.4mn barrels a month earlier.
Iraq's oil exports growth has been rapidly slowing in annual terms and will eventually erode further in Q4 2013, according to government officials. Iraq's draft 2014 state budget implies a 7-10% increase in spending to roughly USD 130bn, according to government officials.
The current 2013 state budget holds for an 18% increase in spending to IQD 139tn (USD 118bn). The budget assumes an average oil price of USD 90 a barrel, up from USD 85 in 2012, and oil output of 2.9mn bpd, up 11% from 2.625mn in 2012. Some 40% of the spending is for capital investments, the main priorities of which are power and security.
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