Iraq
's
crude oil exports in December fell by 11% because of bad weather in southern
oil export terminals and suspension of exports from the
Kurdistan
region in northern
Iraq
,
people familiar with the State Oil Marketing Organization, or SOMO, said
Monday.
Crude exports fell to 2.348 million barrels a day, from 2.620 million barrels a
day in November, according to the people.
They added
Iraq
exported 2.023 million barrels a day from its southern oil fields in December,
compared with 2.194 million barrels a day in November.
"There were days of bad weather at the export terminals in the Gulf,"
one person told Dow Jones Newswires.
Some 314,000 barrels a day were exported from northern oil fields to the
Mediterranean
port
of
Ceyhan
in
Turkey
in
December, compared with 416,000 barrels a day in the previous month. Another
11,000 barrels a day were shipped by truck to
Jordan
in
December, the people said.
One person said that northern oil exports were reduced in December because the
Kurdistan Regional Government suspended their oil exports of nearly 90,000
barrels a day.
The Kurds have suspended exports due to payments the central government needs
to make to producing companies in
Kurdistan
.
The federal government has withheld payment of 350 billion Iraqi dinars ($296.6
million) because the northern region had failed to export the agreed amount of
oil, a government official in
Baghdad
said
last week.
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negotiating with Italian giants Eni Spa (ENI.MI),
France
's
Total SA (TOT) and
South Korea
's
Kogas for permits to drill for gas and oil in other blocks off
Cyprus
.
Cyprus
hopes
its energy bonanza can eventually help pull it out of recession and tackle its
huge debt which has forced it to seek a European Union bailout.
Turkey
has
protested strongly against the
Cyprus
government's offshore energy bid, branding it illegal and retaliating by beginning
its own exploratory drilling off the breakaway north of the island.
Ankara
has warned that companies involved in the
Cyprus
process could be shut out of
Turkey
's
energy investment.
Christofias has said the oil and gas search will carry on regardless, and that
any finds will be used for the benefit of all Cypriots.