By Ahmed Mousa Jiyad.
Any opinions expressed are those of the authors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News.
SOMO Reveals More Important Data on its Marketing Activities
In my latest article I suggested that the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) disclose details on its regular (term contract) marketing activities in addition to the spot sales.
SOMO posted, promptly, data on its regular oil sales for last May and June. As was the case with the previous discloser, this one is also unprecedented and, moreover, very useful as it sheds more lights on SOMO’s marketing activities.
The disclosed data came through four pdf. tables; each month has two tables- one for crude Basrah Light, while the other is for Basrah Heavy. Each table provides the following data: name of the Vessel/tanker, Quantity of loaded crude (in barrels); Bill/Lading Date; Destination (mostly countries) and names of the international oil buyers (IOBs).
Based on the disclosed data, SOMO exported, during the two months, more than 207 million barrels, 74.3% of which is Basrah Light and 25.7% Basrah Heavy. The comparison for the last ten years shows that Asian and European destinations enhanced their share from Basrah oil at the expense of the Americas. Some 168 tanker trips/shipments were loaded with oil to these regional destinations.
But the four tables provide no oil prices and no generated revenues for any shipments and there are a few missing, but important, items that need attention and could be easily addressed by SOMO.
This article is based on the tabulation and compilation of data from these four tables and other published sources. It will first address crude type and their market-crude destinations by highlighting a dramatic change occurred during the last ten years. Then it discusses the importance of the main importing countries, in each region, during the period. Also, the article emphasizes the importance of such disclosure for transparency in the petroleum sector and finally it ends with a few concluding remarks and suggestions.
Click here to download the full article in pdf format.
Mr Jiyad is an independent development consultant, scholar and Associate with the former Centre for Global Energy Studies (CGES), London. He was formerly a senior economist with the Iraq National Oil Company and Iraq’s Ministry of Oil, Chief Expert for the Council of Ministers, Director at the Ministry of Trade, and International Specialist with UN organizations in Uganda, Sudan and Jordan. He is now based in Norway (Email: mou-jiya(at)online.no, Skype ID: Ahmed Mousa Jiyad). Read more of Mr Jiyad’s biography here.
