Middle East Supply Still Growing

摘要

Despite swollen global crude supplies, MidEast countries, particularly Iraq and Saudi Arabia are continuing to pump at an unprecedented pace. Latest data from Energylntel shows Iraq's crude production rose to 3.7 mb/d in March allowing exports to hit a post-war record of 2.98 mb/d. Weather delays and blending issues that had affected previous month's exports subsided thus southern volumes rebounded to over 2.7 mb/d as loadings from new single point mooring buoys (SPM) exceeded 1.2 mb/d for the first time. Iraq is introducing a new Basrah Heavy grade from May to address the blending issues, but it is unclear when these cargoes (to be loaded from an SPM) will be available.