Iraq’s Member of the Parliamentary Oil and Energy Committee, Ghalib Muhammad, is seeking to negotiate with the Organization for Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) a reduction in Iraq’s percentage of production cuts if the group goes ahead with extending production cuts, according to Shafaq News.

Muhammad said in an interview with Shafaq News agency, “Iraq is one of the countries that totally depend on oil in its general budget. Changing its prices or reducing them by even one dollar affects the country’s economy,” stressing the need for “Iraq’s commitment to OPEC decisions because any loss that occurs will have a greater impact on it more than any other oil-producing country”.

Due to Iraq’s exceptional reliance on oil exports as a source of income, there may be some leniency towards these requests.  

The current agreement includes reducing oil production amongst OPEC+ producers by 9.7 million barrels per day (mmbbl/d). Iraq’s share of the reduction was 1.061 mmbl/d.

To highlight the extent of the financial damage, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) indicated in its October report that Iraq had lost 50% of its oil revenues during H1 2020.