Sunday, Feb 12, 2012
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.
-By Hassan Hafidh, Dow Jones Newswires; +962 799 831 831; hassan.hafidh@dowjones.com
Copyright (c) 2012 Dow Jones & Co.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-02-12 0846GMT
