Iraq's oil exports slightly declined in June to 2.32 million barrels per day (bpd) compared with 2.48 million bpd in May, the country's oil ministry said Monday.

Iraq exported a total of 69.8 million barrels over the 30 days of June and brought in 6.799 billion U.S. dollars in revenues, with an average selling price of 97.407 dollars per barrel, the ministry said in a statement.

Iraq exported 64 million barrels through the southern port of Basra, and 5.8 million barrels via Turkey's port of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea, the statement said.

Asim Jihad, the spokesman of the ministry, attributed the decrease to the stop of loading oil tanker ships due to the bad weather at the country's southern ports, and to the repeated acts of sabotage that targeted the oil pipeline from the northern province of Kirkuk to Turkey's port of Ceyhan, according to the statement.

Iraq's economy depends on oil revenues for nearly 95 percent of its budget.

In 2010, Iraq announced its proven oil reserves had increased to 143.1 billion barrels from the previous estimation of 115 billion barrels.



Soran Ali