MP retracts claim that Iran charges Iraq $20 a barrel

BAGHDAD — A senior lawmaker withdrew his claim that Iran charges Iraq $20 for every barrel exported through the Strait of Hormuz, saying a day later that Iraq pays no fees to Iran or anyone else.

“What was circulated by the media from a statement about Iran imposing fees on Iraqi oil is incorrect. The oil offered through SOMO is sold at $65 per barrel, and Iraq does not pay fees to Iran or anyone else,” Mansour al-Baiji said in a video statement on Al-Ahad TV.

On Tuesday he had told Alawla TV that Iran took $20 a barrel and that the state oil marketer could face U.S. sanctions as a result. “Iran imposes fees and takes money from us on every barrel exported, at $20, and there is no exemption for us,” he said then. “Iran takes these fees from SOMO; if the United States learns of this, it will impose sanctions on SOMO, and we will be finished because of those sanctions.” He did not explain the difference between the two statements.

The $65 figure he gave on Wednesday is difficult to reconcile with other official numbers. SOMO offered discounts of $25 to $29.80 a barrel on some August-loading Basrah crude, which would put the pre-discount reference price around $90 to $95 — well above the roughly $73 a barrel implied by Iraq’s May and June sales. At $65 a barrel and the roughly 2 million barrels a day Iraq exported in August, monthly revenue would run close to $4 billion, against the $1.5 billion Oil Minister Bassem al-Abadi described in July.

Iraq shipped 32.1 million barrels of crude and condensates in May and June for about $2.34 billion, roughly $1.17 billion a month, or about 526,000 barrels a day against some 3.3 million before the war. Oil provides more than 90% of federal revenue.