Iraq's Southern Oil Exports Slip in February

Iraq's southern oil exports dropped slightly in February to an average of 3.225 million barrels per day (bpd), the oil ministry said on Tuesday.

Shipments from the southern terminals in the Gulf fell from 3.285 million bpd in January as several days of bad weather delayed loading operations.

All of the exports were from Iraq's southern ports, ministry spokesman Asim Jihad said. For a fifth consecutive month, Baghdad exported no oil via its northern pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Iraq depends almost entirely on its southern exports after the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region in the north ramped up its own independent oil sales via Ceyhan in June 2015 while cutting allocations to Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO).

February revenue totaled $2.2 billion, with 93.54 million barrels sold at an average price of $23 per barrel, up slightly from $22.21 the previous month, Jihad said.

Iraq, whose revenue depends almost entirely on oil sales, is struggling to cope with a sharp fall in oil prices since mid-2014 and a battle against Islamic State militants who control large swathes of territory in the north and west.