Iraq now expects to earn $25 billion in revenues in 6 months

BAGHDAD - Iraq now expects to earn $25 billion in oil export revenues in six months due to the rising price of oil, the state news agency reported on Friday, citing the country's finance minister.

The Iraqi federal government is yet to receive any revenues or funds from oil exports from the northern Kurdish region although it is obligated to pay them, Ali Abdul Ameer Allawi added. 

Oil prices extended losses on Friday, heading for a 4% weekly drop and burdened by the prospect of rate hikes, weaker global growth and Covid-19 lockdowns in China hurting demand, even as the European Union weighed a ban on Russian oil.

Brent crude futures were down $1.17, or 1.1%, to $107.16 a barrel at 0420 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures had declined $1.17 cents, or 1.1%, to $102.62 a barrel.

Both benchmark contracts were headed for weekly declines of around 4.0%.

This has been the least volatile week of trade since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, sparking sanctions that cut Russian oil supply and led consuming nations to release a record volume of oil from emergency stocks. Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation.”

Concerns about the Ukraine conflict stoking inflation and denting economic growth dominated trading in the second half of the week, with the International Monetary Fund slashing its global growth forecast by nearly a full percentage point.