A view shows Iraq’s Majnoon oilfield near Basra, Iraq, March 27, 2022. Photo taken with a drone. REUTERS/Essam Al-Sudani

April 5 (Reuters) – Iraq pumped 4.15 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil in March, 222,000 bpd below its production quota under a deal with other producers from OPEC+, data from state-owned marketing firm SOMO seen by Reuters showed on Tuesday.

Iraqi production in March fell 112,000 bpd from February, the data showed.

Iraq, like several other OPEC members, is struggling to pump more oil at a time when global supply is already tight and prices are soaring.

Last month, Brent crude futures hit their highest level since 2008 at $139 a barrel. While prices have since fallen, they remained above $100 on Tuesday. Read more

Iraqi production in March fell following field outages in the south, which halted a tenth of the country’s oil production. Read more

The 400,000 bpd West Qurna 2 oilfield was offline for 12 days of maintenance that ended March 8, and the 80,000 bpd Nasiriyah field was closed for seven days until March 4 due to protests .

Upgrades to Iraq’s Gulf ports, which lasted most of 2021 and are expected to be completed in the current quarter, have also prevented Iraq from pumping larger volumes. Read more

Reporting by Rowena Edwards; edited by David Goodman and Jason Neely

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