Reply #15: Iraqi oil output rises as security improves By Demetri Sevastopulo

[Demeter]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/660bac90-5e5f-11dd-b354-000077b07658.html

Iraqi oil production has risen to its highest level since the 2003 invasion on the back of improved security across the country, according to a new US government report. Iraq pumped an average of 2.43m bpd between April and June, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction.

The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (Sigir) said the combination of record production and high global oil prices would likely provide a windfall to the Iraqi government, which previously forecast that 2008 oil revenues would be $35bn (€22bn, £18bn).

“With oil now hovering around $125 per barrel – about five times what it was five years ago – and Iraq’s oil production at record levels, Sigir estimates that oil revenues for 2008 could exceed $70bn,” said Stuart Bowen, the inspector-general in his quarterly report to Congress. Sigir attributed the record production to the decline in violence across Iraq, in addition to a special exclusion zone created to protect a pipeline that runs from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk to the oil-refining city of Baiji.

It also acknowledged that the success of the $34m project was underscored by there having been no attacks on northern pipelines this year. Iraq is now extending the pipeline exclusion zone from Baiji to Baghdad.