Iraq has agreed with major oil companies operating its giant southern oil fields to cut crude production further in June, Iraqi officials working at the fields said on Sunday.
Baghdad aims to improve its compliance with its output cut targets under a global deal with OPEC and its allies to reduce oil supply.
Iraq has agreed with Russia’s Lukoil to start an additional cut of 50,000 barrels a day (b/d) as of June 13 to lower production from the West Qurna 2 field to around 275,000 b/d.
Lukoil cut output by 70,000 b/d in May in response to a request by Iraq’s oil ministry, two Iraqi oilfield managers said on Sunday.
Production from West Qurna 2 was around 395,000 b/d in April, the managers said.
The Iraqi oil managers, who oversee production operations, said state-run Basra Oil Company had asked BP to cut production from the Rumaila oilfield by around 140,000 b/d of its total production, which stands at between 1.4 million b/d to 1.45 million b/d.
Exxon Mobile Corp has agreed also to cut an additional 70,000 b/d from the West Qurna 1 field to reduce production to around 350,000 b/d in June, the two Iraqi managers said.
Production was cut by around 50,000 b/d in May and stood at around 420,000 b/d.
Lukoil, BP and Exxon were not immediately available for comment.
Iraq has told OPEC it would start an urgent plan to cut its oil production gradually to fully comply with its quota, after the group demanded that Baghdad and other laggards adhere to a pact on output curbs.
“We will keep lowering production gradually to comply with OPEC quota,” one Iraqi oil official said.
OPEC, Russia and allies agreed on June 6 to extend record oil production cuts until the end of July, prolonging a deal that has helped crude prices to double in the past two months by withdrawing almost 10 per cent of global supplies from the market.
The group, known as OPEC+, also asked countries such as Nigeria and Iraq, which exceeded production quotas in May and June, to compensate with extra cuts in July to September.
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