Iraq exported 101.15 million barrels of crude oil in November, down from 107.82 million in October, marking a decrease of 6.18 percent, according to the Oil Ministry.
In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said the revenues from last month's exports stood at nearly $6.18 billion based on preliminary figures released by the state oil marketing firm SOMO.
Both the drop in export volumes and the fall in oil prices led to a decrease in the country’s oil export revenue compared to the October level of nearly $7.91 billion.
Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad said the total volume of crude oil exported from the oilfields in central and southern Iraq amounted to nearly 100.9 million barrels, while the country exported 261,466 barrels through the Ceyhan port in southern Turkey.
He said the daily rate of exports averaged 3.37 million barrels in November, down from nearly 3.47 million in October, with the average price per barrel amounting to $61.09, down from $73.34 in the previous month.
Although the spokesman did not specify the origin of oil exported through the Turkish port of Ceyhan, the figure likely includes exports from the oilfields in the northern province of Kirkuk, where oil activity had been halted for nearly a year after Iraqi forces took over the facilities in response to the September 2017 illegitimate referendum for independence of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) from the central government in Baghdad.
Oil extraction and pumping from Kirkuk was suspended in October 2017 until Nov. 16, 2018, when Iraq's federal government and the KRG reached a tentative agreement to resume oil exports from Kirkuk to Ceyhan.
Iraq is OPEC's second largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia.
By Hale Turkes
Anadolu Agency
energy@aa.com.tr