Iraq’s oil export earnings in August hit an all-time high this year, allowing OPEC’s second largest oil producer to boost spending on projects within its largest ever state budget approved in June, according to official data.

Buoyed by high oil prices, Iraq projected record high capital expenditure in its three-year budget and a large part of the funds would be spent on infrastructure and unfinished projects with a value of billions.

Figures by the Oil Ministry showed Iraq’s August crude export earnings peaked at an eight-month high of nearly $8.8 billion due to higher oil prices and production.

Baghdad Alyoum newspaper said higher oil sales were a result of an increase in crude exports to nearby Jordan to around 14,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 10,000 bpd in previous months.

The report showed earnings stood at $8.3 billion in July, $7.1 billion in June, and $7.3 billion in May and between $7 billion and $7.7 billion in the previous months.

As for the first eight months of 2023, the report showed Iraq’s oil export revenues totaled around $61.2 billion, one of the highest levels during this period of the year.

Forecasts by the U.S. Energy Information Administration showed Iraq could earn nearly $100 billion in 2023.

“Iraq’s 2023 budget and the developments in the oil market show that the country does not need to borrow despite high capital expenditure,” the paper quoted Presidential Adviser Mudhar Saleh as saying.

In a recent report, the Finance Ministry said the 2023-2025 budget is based on an average oil price of $70/barrel and crude exports of 3.5 million bpd, including nearly 400,000 bpd from the Kurdistan region.

(Writing by Nadim Kawach; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)

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