Iraq's oil exports slightly increased in May to 2.582 million barrels per day (bpd), compared to 2.509 bpd in April, despite violence and insurgent attacks in the northern part of the country that prevented pumping crude through the pipelines via Turkey, the oil ministry said on Sunday.
Iraq exported a total of 80.036 million barrels over the 31 days of May and brought in 8.68 billion U.S. dollars in revenues, with an average selling price of 100.08 dollars per barrel, the ministry said in a statement emailed to Xinhua.
All of Iraq's oil sales were made via export terminals in Iraq' s southern city of Basra, which were the highest average of oil exports from the southern oil-hub city since 2003.
"The oil exports via the northern oil pipelines from Kirkuk to Turkey's port of Ceyhan has been suspended since March 2, 2014 due to repeated terrorist attacks, " the statement quoted ministry spokesman Asim Jihad as saying.
Iraq's economy relies on oil revenues for nearly 95 percent of its revenues.
In 2010, Iraq announced that its proven oil reserves had increased to 143.1 billion barrels from the previous estimation of 115 billion barrels.