Iraq aims to increase crude oil export capacity from its southern ports to 6 million barrels per day from the current 3.5 million barrels a day capacity, Karim Hattab, deputy oil minister for distribution affairs said in a statement.
Hattab said the increased capacity would be after 2023 and that the plan includes building 24 storage tanks.
In a statement, he revealed that “the ministry is keen to expedite the completion and implementation of projects to develop oil warehouses in Al-Faw district in Basra Governorate, which aim to enhance and maintain oil exports from southern ports.”
The deputy oil minister added that the ministry is working on developing the Al-Faw oil depot.
He indicated that “the aim is to raise the export capacity of the current system ranges from (3.5) million cubic meters to (6) million barrels per day after 2023.”
Hattab stressed the need to “differentiate between the export capacity available for the export system and the actual export determined by the ministry according to the requirements of the actual need in the future.”
The ministry’s plans also aim to implement the marine pipeline project from the Faw warehouse, he pointed out.
In another context, the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Iraq, Tokhir Mirzoev welcomed the Council of Ministers’ approval of a draft of the 2021 Federal Budget Law and expressed the fund’s readiness to support reform efforts by the government.
He said that, according to their understanding, the approval of the draft envisaged the implementation of important financial reforms.
Mirzoev continued that despite the difficulty of those reforms and the recently announced devaluation of the currency exchange rate, they constitute critical steps to help reduce significant imbalances in payments and public finances and ensure economic stability.
