Iraq increases crude export capacity at southern Gulf terminals with new pumping units

Iraq boosted its crude export capacity at its southern Gulf terminals by 300,000 b/d with the addition of two new turbine pumping units, the oil ministry said July 25, easing bottleneck pressures on loadings.

The pumping units were installed at the Zubair-2 crude depot, situated within oil fields west of Basrah, oil minister Hayan Abdulghani said in a ceremony inaugurating the project.

He added that the units will provide flexibility for barrels produced and stored there to be transported to other depots and pumping stations, on to the onshore Fao terminal and the offshore Al-Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) and its associated four single point moorings in the Gulf.

Current export capacity from Iraq's Gulf terminals is limited to around 3.5 million b/d – 1.25 million from ABOT and 2.25 million from the SPMs. ABOT's capacity had been higher, but pipelines connecting it to the Fao terminal have degraded severely.

Works to repair the pipelines and upgrade the terminals have been ongoing for years but have suffered financing problems.

"The ministry is working on development projects to maintain and increase the export capacity," Abdulghani said, according to the oil ministry statement.

However, any benefit from the two new pumping units may not immediately materialize, as Iraq has pledged to hold its crude exports to 3.3 million b/d in the coming months, as it seeks to improve compliance with its OPEC+ production quota, under pressure from other members.

Iraq overproduced its quota of 4.0 million b/d by about 1.184 million b/d, when its monthly excess volumes are added up, the OPEC secretariat said July 24, outlining the country's plans to implement extra so-called "compensation cuts" through September 2025.

Those compensation cuts will force Iraq to keep its production between 70,000 to 90,000 b/d below its quota, varying by month, during that span.

Besides the Gulf exports, Iraq also ships a small amount of heavy Qayarah crude, typically around 30,000 b/d, from its Khor al-Zubair terminal and trucks about 15,000 b/d of Kirkuk grade across the border to Jordan.

Production in the semiautonomous Kurdistan region, which market sources have said is as high as 300,000 b/d and maybe higher, is not countedin the federal export data of Iraq's oil ministry.