Q&A: Ali Nazar al-Shatari, deputy director general of SOMO
Infrastructure bottlenecks will limit Iraq's exports and production in the short term, but SOMO is squeezing value from oil sales through new marketing strategies.
SOMO Deputy Director General and Head of Crude Ali Nazar al-Shatari (right), at the Nov. 30, 2016, OPEC meeting in Vienna with then-Iraqi Oil Minister Jabbar Ali al-Luiebi (center), and then-SOMO Director General Falah Alamri (left). (Source: OPEC Media Office)
Iraq is increasing crude sales as sustained higher oil prices have led the OPEC-plus coalition to ease production restrictions — but the country will not surpass its record of nearly 4 million barrels per day (bpd) of exports anytime soon, according to Ali Nazar al-Shatari.
The director of crude and deputy director general of Iraq's State Oil Marketing Company (commonly referred to by its old acronym, SOMO), Shatari says there's plenty of oil, but Iraq can only take advantage of rising production capacity after it finishes replacing decades-old subsea pipelines that carry crude oil to export outlets in the Basra Gulf.
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