Oil Exports Still On Track From Southern Iraq

BASRA, Iraq, Aug 23 (AFP) - Oil exports from southern Iraq continued Monday at a rate of 83,000 barrels an hour, an official of the South Oil Company said.
"The rate of output is 83,000 barrels an hour," the official told AFP.
Oil exports through the two pipelines at Basra and Khor al-Amaya returned to their normal average output of 85,000 barrels an hour late Saturday (about 1.9 million barrels a day), the official said Sunday.
For 13 days, exports were down to between 36,000 and 42,000 barrels a day due to threats by Shiite militia loyal to Moqtada Sadr to blow up oil pipelines feeding the two southern terminals.
One of the pipelines was closed entirely for security reasons and the other was pumping just 25,000 barrels an hour to Basra and between 15,000 and 17,000 to Khor al-Amaya.
The official did not say why they had decided to resume full production but the shutdown meant the country was losing 30 million dollars a day in oil revenue, the government said.
In normal times, Iraq exports around 1.8 million barrels a day through its southern terminals.
The disruption to Iraqi exports helped world prices to record highs of approaching 50 dollars a barrel in New York last week.