Iraq Offers To Sell Kirkuk Oil Through Term Contracts-SOMO

[BIG WAVE]

AMMAN (Dow Jones)--Iraq is offering to sell 300,000-350,000 barrels a day of Kirkuk crude oil through term contracts as of beginning of August, head of the State Oil Marketing Organization, or SOMO, Falah Alamri said Saturday.

"We are going to put an advertisement either today or tomorrow for international companies to sell them Kirkuk crude through term contracts," Alamri told Dow Jones Newswires by telephone from Baghdad.

"We will be able to supply 300,000 b/d to 350,000 b/d of Kirkuk crude as term contracts from the beginning of August until the end of the year," he said.

Exports of Kirkuk crude resumed this week after a suspension of nearly a year as persistent acts of sabotage to the pipeline to Turkey's Ceyhan port prevented that from happening.

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[Jetsa]

Is it just me or does anyone else find it odd that the Iraq government is willing to go out on a limb saying they can provide 300,000-350,000bpd out of Kirkuk when the bombings and disruptions in the pipeline just ceased for no apparent reason like last week? Doesnt sound like very good business sense being applied. Who's to say that the disruptions wont start again since they dont know why they stopped in the first place? Or, do they know for a fact that the disruptions wont happen again...Hmm