95% of Iraqi revenues still come from oil

Shafaq News/ On Monday, the Iraqi Ministry of Finance issued the February 2022 statistics, which showed the significant contribution of oil to the federal budget.

According to the official data, the Iraqi economy is still overly dependent on oil, accounting for 95 percent of government budget revenues after 94% last January.

"The total oil revenues for February amounted to 21,047,174,260,393 dinars, while the total non-oil revenues is 1,028,095,602,691 dinars, which represents 5% of the total revenues.

Hilal Al-Tahan, an economic expert, said in an interview with Shafaq News Agency, "The significant rise in global oil prices is the main reason for the high percentage of oil's contribution to the federal budget.

Al-Tahan added, "We have not noticed any serious governmental steps to overcome the economic crisis. That would represent an economic risk if the oil prices dropped globally, which is expected and will lead to financial crises similar to what happened in 2020."

"If Iraq wants to avoid future surprise, it must develop the other sectors such as agriculture and industry," noting that "the electricity sector is vital and keeps the economic wheels turning."

It is worth noting that Iraq is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) after Saudi Arabia, and it holds the world's fifth-largest proved crude oil reserves. [1] Most of Iraq's major known fields, all located onshore, are producing or are in development.

Iraq's crude oil production grew by about 300,000 barrels per day (b/d) from 2013 through 2017, and it averaged 4.4 million b/d in 2017. During the first half of 2018, Iraqi crude oil output stood at about 4.5 million b/d. These production estimates include oil produced in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, the semiautonomous northeast region in Iraq governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).