OPEC quota will probably not constrain Iraq's oil output for some time..
As per reports and information from our sources,OPEC quota will probably not constrain Iraq's oil output for some time, according to estimates by a Lukoil official, with OPEC and Iraq likely to reach an agreement that will exceed the usual allowance.Gati Al-Jebouri, chief commercial officer of Lukoil Mid-East, suggested on Friday that Iraq's OPEC quota might be set at about 5-6 million barrels of oil per day, but added it was hard to say how quickly this would be reached.Iraq currently produces about 2.6 million bpd, according to the International Energy Agency's latest monthly report.Russian oil company Lukoil, which has a license to operate in the West Qurna Phase II oil field with its partner Statoil, is targeting 150,000 bpd by 2013 and 400,000-500,000 bpd by 2014.Taking into account Iraq's eagerness to make up for lost production and OPEC's acknowledgement that Iraq is an important member of the organizationl, Al-Jebouri sees the two reaching a middle ground that would exceed the usual quota allowance.If this calculation is applied to Iraq, it would be allowed to produce about 3.5 million bpd.However, Iraq believes it should be compensated as a result of having under-produced for a number of years, to the benefit of other OPEC members.The chairman of OPEC has confirmed Iraq's importance to OPEC and sees negotiations with Iraq re-entering the quota system when Iraq's production reaches 4-5 million bpd.The question is how quickly foreign oil companies will be allowed to ramp up to 5-6 million bpd.The Iraqi government is targeting capacity of some 12 million bpd by 2017.
Iran has always been committed to OPEC's crude production quotas, the country's OPEC governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi told the semi-official Mehr news agency on Saturday.