1) We discussed on Monday how the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is expecting no major impact to its crude oil production from the OPEC decision, and how crude from northern Iraq flows through the 600-mile Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline before being loaded onto tankers in the Turkish port.

The KRG controls ~550,000 bpd, and has indicated that it doesn’t plan to scale back on production. Iraq needs to cut production by 210,000 bpd to meet its OPEC cut quota, but 90 percent of the crude produced in the non-Kurdish controlled areas is operated by international oil companies. The state-run oil company controls some 440,000 bpd of Iraq’s production, with 280,000 bpd of this in the south. These fields are the ones that are expected to feel the brunt of the OPEC production cut:

2) Italy is the leading destination for Kirkuk crude, accounting for over a third of all exports this year – some 155,000 bpd. Israel is the second most popular destination, while Cyprus...