Iraq’s Oil Ministry announced last week that its planned storage expansion at Fao in southern Iraq is underway and should help push southern export capacity from its current 3.7mn b/d toward its 6mn b/d goal by 2023. Work includes 24 tanks each with a capacity of 58,000 m³ (365,000 barrels) bringing additional capacity to around 9mn barrels.

Upgrading its southern export infrastructure – including storage, pumping, and pipeline capacity – has long been a priority for the ministry, but one that’s been marred by delays and contract disputes (MEES, 28 June 2019). Improvements on all these fronts are needed still, particularly given the fact that in 2019 Iraq occasionally came very close to exporting at full capacity from the creaky offshore terminals (MEES, 4 October 2019). (CONTINUED - 189 WORDS)