The Oil Ministry of Iraq said the country’s oil exports in December last year were the highest in more than three decades, Reuters has reported.
The ministry’s spokesman, Assem Jihad, said on Saturday that Iraq exported an average of 2.94mn barrels of oil per day and a total of 91.141mn- the most since the 1980s.
According to ministry figures, December 2014 exports outdid the output of the previous best month by more than 11mn barrels.
Despite the export surge, Baghdad reported a lower crude revenue amid ever decreasing oil prices in the past few months.
Iraq’s revenues in the last month of 2014 was $5.247bn, which is much lower than the early months of 2014.
According to the Iraqi official, oil traded at the average price of $57 a barrel in December, down from $100 or more during the first half of 2014.
Jihad called on the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to address the issue of plunging oil prices.
“OPEC must move to address this issue. Prices are falling now to abnormal levels, and it is up to the organisation to move instead of watching prices collapse to illogical levels,” he said.
Iraq is one of the countries in the Middle East that is very dependant on oil revenues for a large majority of government funds.
The Oil Ministry said in November last year that the Iraqi economy and budget were “greatly affected” by the decline in revenues due to falling oil prices, as more than 27% of its projected revenues for 2014 was lost.
