Iraq Exports $11.07 Billion of Oil During March, Highest for 50 Years

Oil ministry figures show Iraq exported more crude last month than it has since 1972 Hussein FALEH AFP/File
Oil ministry figures show Iraq exported more crude last month than it has since 1972 Hussein FALEH AFP/File
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Iraq Exports $11.07 Billion of Oil During March, Highest for 50 Years

Oil ministry figures show Iraq exported more crude last month than it has since 1972 Hussein FALEH AFP/File
Oil ministry figures show Iraq exported more crude last month than it has since 1972 Hussein FALEH AFP/File

Iraq exports of oil reached $11.07 billion last month, the highest level for half a century, as crude prices soared amid shortfall fears following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the oil ministry said.

The second largest producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iraq exported "100,563,999 barrels for revenues of $11.07 billion, the highest revenue since 1972", the ministry said, AFP reported.

The figures published late Friday are preliminary data but final data "generally does not vary" much, a ministry official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In February, oil revenues reached an eight-year high of $8.5 billion dollars, with daily exports of 3.3 million barrels of oil.

Oil exports account for more than 90 percent of Iraq's income.

Crude prices spiked over fears of a major supply shortfall after Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24. Russia is the world's second biggest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, the OPEC group of oil producing countries and its Russia-led allies agreed on another modest oil output increase, ignoring Western pressure to significantly boost production as the Ukraine conflict has rocked prices.

The 13 members of the Saudi-led OPEC and 10 countries spearheaded by Russia -- a group known as OPEC+ -- backed an increase of 432,000 barrels per day in May, marginally higher than in previous months.

The United States has urged OPEC+ to boost production as high energy prices have contributed to soaring inflation across the world, which has threatened to severely derail the recovery from the Covid pandemic.

While OPEC refused to budge, Washington said it would tap its strategic stockpile by a record amount in a bid to cool soaring prices.

The international benchmark contract, Brent North Sea crude, flirted with a record high in early March as it soared to almost $140 per barrel, but has retreated since then.

On Friday, oil was around $100 a barrel.

Oil revenues are critical for Iraq's government, with the country mired in a financial crisis and needing funds to rebuild infrastructure after decades of devastating war.

Iraq, with a population of some 41 million people, is also grappling with a major energy crisis and suffers regular power cuts.

Despite its immense oil and gas reserves, Iraq remains dependent on imports to meet its energy needs.

Neighboring Iran currently provides a third of Iraq's gas and electricity needs, but supplies are regularly cut or reduced, aggravating daily load shedding.



More than 50 Countries Have Contacted White House to Start Trade Talks, Trump Adviser Says

A view of a container terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 12, 2025. (Reuters)
A view of a container terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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More than 50 Countries Have Contacted White House to Start Trade Talks, Trump Adviser Says

A view of a container terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 12, 2025. (Reuters)
A view of a container terminal at Tanjung Priok Port in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 12, 2025. (Reuters)

More than 50 countries have reached out to the White House to begin trade talks, a top economic adviser to US President Donald Trump said on Sunday as US officials sought to defend sweeping new tariffs that have unleashed global turmoil.

During an interview on ABC News' "This Week," US National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett denied that the tariffs were part of a strategy by Trump to crash financial markets to pressure the US Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

He said there were would be no "political coercion" of the central bank. In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump shared a video that suggested his tariffs aimed to hammer the stock market on purpose in a bid to force lower interest rates.

In a separate interview on NBC News's Meet the Press, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent downplayed the stock market drop and said there was "no reason" to anticipate a recession based on the tariffs.

Trump jolted economies around the world after he announced broad tariffs on US imports on Wednesday, triggering retaliatory levies from China and sparking fears of a globe trade war and recession.

On Sunday morning talk shows, top Trump officials sought to portray the tariffs as a savvy repositioning of the US in the global trade order and the economic disruptions as a short-term fallout.

US stocks have tumbled by around 10% in the two days since Trump announced a new global tariff regime that was more aggressive than analysts and investors had been anticipating.

It is a drop that market analysts and large investors have blamed on Trump's aggressive push on tariffs, which most economists and the head of the US Federal Reserve believe risk stoking inflation and damaging economic growth.

Tariff-stunned markets face another week of potential tariff turmoil, with fallout from Trump's sweeping import levies keeping investors on edge after the worst week for US stocks since the onset of the COVID-19 crisis five years ago.

Hassett told ABC News' "This Week" that Trump's tariffs had so far driven "more than 50" countries to contact the White House to begin trade talks.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the US, pledging to remove trade barriers rather than imposing reciprocal measures and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their US investments.

Unlike other economists, Hassett said he did not expect a big hit to consumers because exporters were likely to lower prices.

Bessent told NBC News he did not anticipate a recession based on the tariffs, citing stronger-than-anticipated US jobs growth.

"We could see from the jobs number on Friday, that was well above expectations, that we are moving forward, so I see no reason that we have to price in a recession," Bessent said.