Baghdad, June 09: Iraq plans to resume oil exports in the third week of June, the acting head of its oil ministry, Thamir Ghadhban, told reporters here today. "We are processing contracts now with various interested parties and we hope that during the third week of this month the first shipment will be made available to the international market," he said.

"Hopefully by the end of this month we will be producing about 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and about two-thirds of that will be made available for export."
"As far as the resumption of exports is concerned, we have about eight million barrels" in the tank farms in the Turkish Mediterranean Port of Ceyhan, he said.
Bureau Report