MOSCOW (MRC) -- Iraq wants OPEC+ to take into consideration the economic and living conditions of countries when assigning quotas in oil production cuts, the country's finance minister said, as OPEC's second-largest oil producer struggles to adhere to it production limits, said S&P Global.
"Iraq's decision to comply with OPEC+ agreement is good and sound and we are committed to it until its expiry," Ali Allawi said in a televised press conference June 7. "But we want also to have new future rules in order to distribute this burden on countries, taking into consideration economic conditions of these countries and living standards when these amounts of cuts are implemented."
Allawi, who used to be acting oil minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, blamed on June 2 "technical issues" for the country's failure to further cut its output and reiterated the country's commitment to the OPEC+ agreement.
Iraq pumped 4.213 million b/d in May and exported 3.63 million b/d, oil marketer SOMO said June 7. The production figure was above the country's 3.592 million b/d quota for May under the OPEC+ agreement.
OPEC+ agreed on June 6 to extend its record 9.7 million b/d cut for May and June to July and mandated oil quota busters such as Iraq to over-comply with cuts in July, August and September to make up for overproduction.
Iraq has failed over the past three years to stick to its quota as it grappled with the aftermath of its war with the Islamic State group between 2014-2017 and ensuing financial problems.
The country has also struggled with internal political upheavel, with protests erupting in October and leading to the resignation of the government of Adel Abdul Mahdi.
Iraq stayed under the caretaker government of Abdul Madhi until the appointment of the Kadhimi government in May. The outbreak of the coronavirus has also taken a toll on Iraq.
As MRC informed earlier, Iraq's oil exports, excluding those from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region, fell 6.6% in May, according to the oil ministry, indicating that OPEC's second-biggest oil producer may have struggled to cut its output by about 23% in accordance with the new OPEC+ agreement. Iraq's oil exports in May averaged 3.212 million b/d, the ministry said in a statement on June 1. In April, exports were 3.438 million b/d.
As MRC informed previously, Iraq's oil-rig count has tumbled by almost two-thirds this year after international oil companies were ordered to cut spending because of the oil crash and OPEC's second-largest producer agreed to stringent new OPEC+ cuts.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 557,060 tonnes in the first three month of 2020, up by 7% year on year. High density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) shipments rose because of the increased capacity utilisation at ZapSibNeftekhim. Demand for LDPE subsided. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market was 267,630 tonnes in January-March 2020, down 20% year on year. Homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers accounted for the main decrease in imports.
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