Iraq exported 12.4 million barrels of oil last week -- the highest weekly figure for two months, the office administering the UN oil-for-food programme said Tuesday.
A pricing dispute with the UN committee that monitors the 10-year sanctions on Iraq and approves its imports and exports had caused a slump in oil shipments.
There were seven loadings of Iraqi crude in the week ending Friday, the office said. Two of them, of about one million barrels each, were at the Turkish port of Ceyhan, where loadings resumed January 21.
There had been only one loading since December 1 at Ceyhan, one of two outlets for Iraqi crude authorised under UN sanctions. The other is Iraq's own port of Mina al-Bakr, on the Gulf.
Iraqi exports last week were worth an estimated 293 million euros ($271 million), at an average price of about $22.35 a barrel, the UN office said.
Iraq insisted in November that the United Nations switch to euros from dollars, the currency used for most international oil transactions.
Since December 6, the start of the current 180-day phase of the oil-for-food programme, Iraq has exported 40.5 million barrels of oil for revenue estimated at 837 million euros ($776 million).
The average weekly figure for the previous phase of the programme was about 14.6 million barrels.
The Middle East Economic Survey reported Monday that Iraq's oil sales had risen after it lowered a surcharge which circumvents UN control of its revenues.
The Cyprus-based industry newsletter said the Iraqi government decided on January 18 to cut the surcharge from a flat 40 cents a barrel to between 25 and 30 cents, retroactive to December 1.
"Major consuming countries are turning a blind eye to Iraq's efforts to impose the surcharge, perhaps because Iraqi oil supplies are needed in order to help bring world oil prices down," the newsletter said.
The UN said its Iraq sanctions committee approved nine new export contracts last week, taking to 85 the number of contracts waiting completion, for a total of more than 210 million barrels of crude.
The value of import contracts put on hold by the committee fell from $3.15 billion to $2.85 billion last week, the office said.
The decline, the first for many months, followed talks between the office and US representatives on the committee, a UN source said.-AFP.
©--Agence France Presse 2001.
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
