Iraq’s state-oil marketer SOMO’s chief Alaa al-Yasiri said he expects that oil rates will remain stable at their current figures for all of 2018.
“I expect oil prices to stay stable at their current levels at least until the end of 2018,” he told reporters. "Oil price stability depends on political stability in our region."
At a SOMO event in Baghdad on Sunday, Yasiri announced that the company will seek to sign joint ventures with companies from China, India, Japan and South Korea to help target Asian markets.
Sixty percent of Iraq's oil exports are already directed to Asia, he said.
In one of several deals announced, Yasiri announced a profit-sharing deal with China's state-run Zhenhua Oil to help market Iraqi crude to Chinese refineries.
"The deal we signed with Zhenhua is only a starting point that will pave the way for more deals and joint ventures with other Asian companies from Japan, India, China and Korea," he added.
As for Kirkuk’s crude, he stated that delays in shipping crude from the region to Iran stemmed from contractual procedures in selecting truck shippers and was not due to security concerns.
On another hand, he said the Oil Ministry will soon select four local shipping companies to start the transport of an initial 40,000 bpd to Iran.
"We decided that trucking 60,000 barrels per day of crude through one shipping company is a tough job to handle. With four shippers on board, we will make sure the flow will not be interrupted," Yasiri said.
Iraq's Oil Ministry is still involved in high-level talks with Kurdish regional energy officials to reach a deal on resuming Kirkuk's oilfields exports to Ceyhan through the Kurdish-controlled pipeline, he went on to say.
"We clarified to the Kurds that the pipeline which links Kirkuk to the Ceyhan pipeline must come back under federal control," he said.
