# How much oil is flowing out of Iraq?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oil-is-flowing-out-of-iraq/246870>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oil-is-flowing-out-of-iraq/246870 "2004-05-24T20:35:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gtbiehle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5f8ce5/32.png) [@gtbiehle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gtbiehle)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oil-is-flowing-out-of-iraq/246870/1 "2004-05-24T20:35:05Z")

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. . . compared to capacity? compared to pre-war flow? If the answer is “Not much”, what is the primary thing holding it up?

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**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oil-is-flowing-out-of-iraq/246870/2 "2004-05-24T21:21:54Z")

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Take with a grain of salt:

> [@](#):
>
> Iraq exports about 1.8 million barrels per day. If that is cut off, we will have a very serious situation. …

After one of the two main pipelines to the south was bombed in early May:

> [@](#):
>
> crude exports last week dropped to just 860,000 barrels per day.

[here](http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&edition=us&ie=ascii&q=iraq+%22barrels+per+day%22)

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**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2004, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-much-oil-is-flowing-out-of-iraq/246870/3 "2004-05-24T21:23:39Z")

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I have this on paper, so I’m afraid I can’t link to it. But on the 7-day period ending May 13, Iraq produced an average of 1.9 million barrels per day, shy of the target of 2.5 million BPD. The long term target is 2.8 to 3.0 MBPD. Just before the war, in March 2003, production peaked at 2.5 MBPD.

At current rates, this year’s oil sales have generated somewhere in the neighborhood of $5.6 billion. This money is primarily used to pay the operating expenses of the Iraqi government, such as it is.

There are lots of problems with the oil industry, such as inefficient infrastructure. There’s also been problems in the past of folks blowing up the pipelines. As of several weeks ago (I don’t know if this has changed) the refining capacity in Iraq was very, very low, so nearly all gasoline had to be imported into Iraq.