#Iraq Is Finally Pumping Enough Oil to Flex Its Muscles in OPEC - Bloomberg

Iraq Is Finally Pumping Enough Oil to Flex Its Muscles in OPEC - Bloomberg:

Yamani, al-Naimi, al-Falih. These three men, all Saudi Arabian energy ministers, moved global oil markets for the past 50 years, sometimes with just an utterance. But the kingdom may be about to lose some of its power. Lurking in the shadows are oil sages in Iraq, which has quietly emerged as the world’s fourth-biggest oil producer. They want a bigger say in OPEC and the global energy game.

Hardly filled with household names, the ever-changing cast of Iraqi oil ministers has basically been relegated to observers in OPEC, the cartel founded in Baghdad in 1960. Iraq was exempted from OPEC production quotas for almost two decades, a concession granted because the country had been mired in conflict since 1980. Its delegations to cartel meetings in Vienna had nothing to offer, unable to tweak output to help prop up prices or fill shortages.

Iraq’s doubling of crude output in the past decade has finally given the country a voice in oil debates and prompted its inclusion in the most recent round of cuts. It recently joined the committee that monitors compliance, though third-party data suggest that the country flouts the production curbs. (Iraqi officials say the country is complying wi