Iraq to stick to OPEC decisions, will not produce more than 4 mln bpd: Minister

Iraq is committed to OPEC decisions and after its second voluntary cut announced in December it is also committed to producing no more than 4 million barrels per day (bpd), oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani told reporters on Monday.

Iraq’s current crude oil exports range between 3.35 million and 3.4 million bpd, he added.

The oil minister said talks with international oil companies operating in Iraqi Kurdistan are making progress towards resolving a dispute which has halted Iraq’s northern oil exports.

“Resumption of exports from the Kurdistan region is linked to the resumption of production from the fields in the region. Talks with the companies operating in the region are on their way to reach a resolution in the near future,” said Abdel-Ghani.

Iraq’s deputy oil minister for upstream affairs said in November that a resumption of northern crude exports depended on re-negotiating current production-sharing contracts to change them to a profit-sharing model.

Turkey halted Iraq’s 450,000 barrels per day (bpd) of northern exports on March 25 last year after an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) which ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages for unauthorized exports between 2014 and 2018.