Iraq will be able to export around 750,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the second half of this month, a senior expert at the Iraqi oil ministry said on Monday. Shamkhi Faraj said Iraq was planning to increase its oil production to 1.5 million bpd during the second half of June, of which half will be used for domestic consumption. “Half of that amount will be ready for exports and that will be increased gradually,” he told Reuters.Iraq’s crude oil exports have been suspended since the start of the US in March that led to the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s government on April 9.Iraq, which possesses the world’s second largest oil reserves after Saudi Arabia, was exporting about two million bpd before the US-led attack.Faraj said preparations were under way to resume oil exports. He said Iraq would follow an “open” policy away from restrictions that used to govern its oil exports under an oil-for-food deal with the United Nations.The oil pact, which started in December 1996, allowed Iraq to sell oil to buy food, medicines and other humanitarian needs for the Iraqi people but under restricted measures. “After sanctions are lifted, we can now export our oil freely without any restrictions. We can have our own pricing and choose the outlet we want,” Faraj said.The UN Security Council lifted 13-year-old trade sanctions on Iraq two weeks ago. Under the oil pact, Iraqi oil exports used to be governed by a pricing formula that had to be approved by Iraq’s sanctions committee at the UN Security Council. The oil deal used to permit Iraq to export oil through the Turkish Port of Ceyhan in the Mediterranean and Mina-al-Bakr terminal in southern Iraq.
