Our Middle East oil team continuously examine Iraq’s complex oil market developments to provide our clients with unique and independent insights, analysis and analytics on the country’s crude and oil products sectors.
Iraq has been a key contributor to OPEC liquids growth, with the country having added 300,000 b/d year-on-year to its production capacity from 2010-15 and almost 900,000 b/d in total during the 2017-22 period.
Over the next decade, Iraq’s upstream development will prove both more costly and complex. Beyond the need to manage the transition from primary to secondary oil recovery - increasing the need for water injection schemes - operators face a host of challenges: a greater focus on gas treatment projects, degassing station upgrades, addressing midstream infrastructure bottlenecks and managing relations with Iraq’s political machinery.
For traders, Iraqi crude exports are keenly watched in East of Suez markets. Key demand centres - particularly India and China - rely on a regular flow of medium-heavy crude from the country. In the products market, Iraq’s role as a gasoline importer and fuel exporter highlights the growing importance of understanding the country’s fuel balances.
On the data side, we cover Iraq’s crude oil production and exports, oil product balances and imports/exports (LPG, Naphtha, Gasoline, Jet/Kero, Diesel/Gasoil, Fuel Oil), and crude oil prices (Basrah Medium – Asia, US, Europe; Basrah Heavy – Asia, US, Europe; Kirkuk - US, Europe)