Baghdad \u2014 Drivers formed long lines outside fuel stations in Baghdad on Saturday as gasoline supplies dropped in oil-rich Iraq due to import disruptions caused by the Middle East war.<\/p>\n
Despite being OPEC\u2019s second largest oil producer, Iraq imports oil derivatives because its refineries do not produce enough gasoline to meet domestic demand.<\/p>\n
In recent weeks, as regional hostilities drag on, long queues have been reappearing every few days, mostly outside government-run fuel stations in Baghdad and other provinces.<\/p>\n
Baghdad resident Ibrahim Hashem waited for two hours outside a fuel station on Friday without any luck, only to return early the next day hoping to fill his car.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is unreasonable that we produce so many barrels of oil a day, yet still do not have enough gasoline to meet our daily needs,\u201d Hashem told AFP outside a fuel station in central Baghdad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already suffer from traffic congestion because of the roads and lack of services. Now, it has become worse due to the gasoline shortage,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Iraq\u2019s average daily consumption of gasoline is 33 million liters, but demand rises to 38 million when people panic over shortages, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
The oil ministry said Friday that \u201cregional events and the ongoing conflict are causing logistical challenges to tanker traffic, delaying their arrival at Iraqi ports.\u201d<\/p>\n
It urged citizens to buy only the quantities they need and avoid crowding fuel stations for small amounts of gasoline.<\/p>\n
Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said on Friday that his ministry was addressing the \u201ctemporary shortage of gasoline\u201d and that new shipments will arrive soon to help stabilize supplies.<\/p>\n
Like other oil producers, Iraq has been greatly affected by the US-Iran conflict, which has choked off the strategic Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n
Iraq is hugely dependent on oil exports, which make up about 90 percent of its budget revenues.<\/p>\n
Before the war erupted in February, Iraq produced around four million barrels per day, and exported an average of 3.4 million bpd, mostly via Hormuz.<\/p>\n
After a significant drop, Iraqi oil exports recovered to more than 2.2 million bpd in August, according to the oil ministry.<\/p>\n
Last month, Iran\u2019s state news agency IRNA said that over the past six months, Tehran has granted permission to \u201ca number of Iraqi oil tankers\u201d to pass through Hormuz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Baghdad \u2014 Drivers formed long lines outside fuel stations in Baghdad on Saturday as gasoline supplies dropped in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[14],"tags":[1711,11283,34,94,213,69],"class_list":["post-284340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-iraq","tag-baghdad","tag-budget","tag-iran","tag-iraq","tag-oil","tag-tehran"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117237862086355231","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}