SINGAPORE - Oil tankers loading at Iraq's southern Basra oil terminals will face delays of as much as four days due to the implementation of new security measures, said shipping and logistics firm GAC.
Iraq has tightened security around oil infrastructure and oilfields in the south in response to intelligence suggesting al Qaeda and other insurgent groups plan to attack oil facilities.
"A new procedure is in place for Iraqi oil terminals, to include security sweeps on all vessels and oil tankers while en route to the terminals," GAC said in its daily report.
Basra, in Iraq's Shi'ite south, has enormous strategic importance as the hub for oil exports, which account for more than 95 percent of government revenue.
Iraq is looking to its massive oil resources for its future stability and prosperity as it emerges from the worst of the sectarian violence set off after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, but it still confronts a resilient Sunni Islamist insurgency.
The OPEC member has signed deals with international oil companies, which if successfully developed could boost Iraq's output capacity to 12 million barrels per day in seven years from the current 2.5 million bpd.
Iraq's exports rose in November to 1.912 million bpd from 1.9 million bpd in October.
No comments:
Post a Comment