Iraq’s Rumaila oil field fire cuts OPEC output by 70,000 barrels per day from December
Oil production in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) fell last month after a fire broke out at Iraq’s largest field, according to a Bloomberg survey.
The survey showed that OPEC pumped just over 27 million barrels per day in January, down by about 70,000 barrels per day from the previous month, with the decline in Iraq outweighing slight increases in Kuwait and Venezuela.
Iraqi authorities quickly put out the fire that broke out on Jan. 24 in a storage tank at the Rumaila field, but the incident caused the shutdown of 300,000 barrels per day, or 25% of the field’s production capacity, over the following week.
Iraq’s average production was more than 4 million barrels per day last month, in line with its OPEC quota.
OPEC and its allies are continuing to implement the supply-limiting deal through the end of the first quarter, with output gradually restored in monthly phases. The group has been cutting output since late 2022 in an attempt to support crude prices.
