US firm Chevron Texaco to load oil from al-Bakr port

Iraq will resume exporting oil from Sunday, the head of the State Oil Marketing Organisation, Mohammed al-Juburi, told AFP on Thursday, over three months after shipments were halted. "Loading Iraqi petrol stocks from the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean Sea will begin Sunday, when pumping will also begin," the official said. Two Spanish companies, Cepsa and Repsol, as well as Turkish firm Tupras, would receive the first shipments, followed next week by Italy's Eni and French oil giant Total, he said. US firm ChevronTexaco would then start loading oil from the port of al-Bakr on the Gulf on June 28, he added. The shipments will be taken from stocks of some eight million barrels of Kirkuk crude from the northern fields at the Turkish terminal of Ceyhan on the Mediterranean, and two million barrels of Basra Light lifted in the south. Oil prices fell in the wake of Iraq's announcement, although with exports likely to be minimal for some months, the main price mover was an unexpected increase in US oil inventories announced Wednesday, analysts said. In London, the price of benchmark Brent North Sea crude oil for August delivery fell 25 cents to 26.01 dollars a barrel.