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Iraq Opens New Sea Oil Terminal To Boost Exports - Sources

Monday, Feb 13, 2012

(This story was originally published Sunday.)

By Hassan Hafidh

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki opened Sunday a new off-shore export oil terminal, that would boost the country's oil exports capacity by 900,000 barrels a day of crude from the southern Basra port on the Persian Gulf, oil ministry officials who asked not to be named, said.

Iraq was planning to begin the Single-Point Mooring, or SPM, for loading tankers, built by Australia's Leighton, on Jan. 27 but technical problems delayed the opening.

Iraq, a founding member of OPEC, is currently producing around 2.9 million barrels a day while exports averaged 2.2 million barrels a day last year.

The new SPM, one of five Iraq is building in the Arabian Gulf, would bring Iraq's export capacity from southern oil terminals to 2.7 million barrels a day from current capacity of around 1.8 million.

Iraq has had to reduce its production from southern oil fields in recent months because it didn't have enough export capacity. Operating the new SPM means Iraq will be able to increase its export from the southern oil field to some 2.2 million barrels a day this year, officials said.

Exports of the northern Kirkuk crude are expected to remain steady at around 400,000 barrels a day, meaning Iraq's total export target this year would reach 2.6 million barrels a day.

Iraq is aiming to raise its production to 3.4 million barrels a day this year, according to oil ministry figures.

Baghdad has signed some 11 oil deals with international oil companies over the last three years with the aim of bringing its output to at least 8 million barrels a day later this decade.

Iraq's South Oil Co., the largest state oil entity, along with international firms, began last year to dig sub-sea trenches to extend three new pipelines that would pump crude from new storage tanks in Iraq's southernmost Faw peninsula to the five new SPMs in the Gulf.

The five SPMs and three pipelines were awarded to Leighton Offshore Private Ltd.--part of Australia's Leighton International. Italy's Saipem SpA was also awarded a project to build a control and measuring system in the sea. The total cost of the project is around $1.4 billion, Iraqi officials said.

-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com

Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.

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13-02-12 0359GMT