Iraq’s oil revenues in 2022 exceeded $115 billion, figures announced by the oil ministry on Tuesday, showed.
“The total revenue from the export of crude oil for the year 2022 amounts to more than US$115 billion,” Minister for Oil Hayan Abdel-Ghani said in a statement.
The country exported more than 1.2 billion barrels in 2022, averaging 3.3 million barrels per day.
Iraq said in October 2022 that it had dismantled the largest oil smuggling network in Basra Governorate. The smugglers stole and smuggled the oil by making holes in crude oil export lines in the Zubair oilfield. Some of the accused are senior officers from the Energy Police Forces tasked with protecting the oil infrastructure.
But the smuggling didn’t stop Iraq’s oil revenues from reaching what was a four-year high after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent oil prices higher.
As OPEC’s second-largest crude oil producer, generating 4.5 million bpd in Q3, oil revenues account for nearly all of Baghdad’s income.
Iraq is home to the world’s fifth-largest proven oil reserves, holding 145 billion barrels, and is China’s third-largest source of crude oil, behind only Saudi Arabia and Russia.