Iraq - crude data

Opec-member Iraq is cutting output, but the statistics are still confusing

Iraq is keeping its Opec promise to cut output to support prices. But because of the smog through which the country's official energy statistics are presented, pinning down the exact size of the reduction is proving difficult. The Opec agreement cited member states' October output figures, based on secondary sources, as the reference point for the cuts. In Iraq's case this was 4.56m barrels a day, a figure that Baghdad said was too low. For much of 2016 the Baghdad authorities insisted that the country's true output figure was about 250,000 b/d higher than that estimated by secondary sources. Nevertheless, the Iraqi authorities agreed that they would trim 210,000 b/d as their part of the dea