Iraq to Be ‘Forced’ to 100% OPEC+ Compliance, Oil Minister Says

(Bloomberg) -- Iraq will be forced into 100% compliance with the OPEC+ deal in August and September as the producer group loses patience with the laggard, the country's oil minister said on Thursday.

“This tolerance from OPEC won't last long. We will be forced this month and next month to 100% compliance,” Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said in a Zoom symposium. “The non-compliance of Iraq means non-compliance of others and this mean collapse of oil prices like what happened in March and April with its effect on Iraq's economy.”

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' crude production rose last month as Persian Gulf members phased out extra supply cutbacks aimed at re-balancing the market. The producer group increased output by 900,000 barrels a day to 23.43 million a day, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Exports from OPEC's Middle East producers also increased in July after Saudi Arabia and key Persian Gulf allies reversed the voluntary production cuts they had made the previous month.

Iraq has come under pressure from Saudi Arabia after failing to meet its production curbs target in May and June. Last month, the country's output slid by just 11,000 barrels a day, tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show

“We were not committed during the previous months,” Jabbar said. “It was a low-level compliance compared to some countries. Saudi, Kuwait, and UAE made complementary cuts of more than 1 million” to support crude prices.

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