In its preliminary report for January, the oil ministry said that the country exported over 103.5 million barrels of oil, at an average rate of 3.3 million barrels per day and an average price of 77.5 dollars per barrel.
The exports generated an estimated revenue of $8.25 billion during the first month of the year, slightly less than December’s $8.31 billion, but noticeably higher than January 2023’s $7.6 billion.
In 2023 Iraq pocketed $97.5 billion from oil sales, a significant decline from 2022’s record-setting $115 billion.
Oil revenue is Iraq’s main source of income, and the federal government relies on oil sales to cover its costs and pay the salaries of its civil servants.
The Kurdistan Region's oil exports through Turkey's Ceyhan port have yet to resume after being put on hold in March 2023 following a ruling from a Paris-based arbitration court saying that Ankara had breached its 1973 pipeline agreement with Baghdad.
Before the halt, around 400,000 barrels a day were being exported by Erbil through Ankara, in addition to some 75,000 barrels of Kirkuk’s oil.
In compliance with the OPEC+ production cuts, Iraq announced in April that it was cutting oil production by 211,000 barrels per day starting from May and effective until the end of 2023.