BAGHDAD, April 13 (Xinhua) -- Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) announced Monday that the country's crude oil exports plummeted to about 18.6 million barrels in March, a sharp decline from 99.8 million barrels in February, due to the conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
According to an official statement by SOMO, the revenues generated from these exports in March exceeded 1.95 billion U.S. dollars, a massive drop from the over 6.8 billion dollars recorded in February.
The statement elaborated that total exports from oil fields in central and southern Iraq, which are most affected by the maritime blockade, amounted to only about 14.5 million barrels in March.
To mitigate the impact of the Gulf shipping disruption, Iraq used its northern corridor, with exports from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region via the Turkish port of Ceyhan totaling about 1.27 million barrels.
Typically, Iraq exported around 100 million barrels of crude oil monthly. However, this volume has been severely reduced since the outbreak of the Mideast conflict on Feb. 28, which subsequently led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital corridor for global energy supplies.
Iraq's economy relies heavily on crude oil exports, which account for about 90 percent of the country's revenues. ■
