Iraq has allowed China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to ship 2 million barrels of crude oil as payment for its part in the development of the Rumaila oilfield in the south of the country.

The Chinese state-owned oil firm loaded a very large crude carrier (VLCC) bound for China at the Basra Oil Terminal in southern Iraq on 28 May, according to Reuters reports.

CNPC is owed approximately $200m. UK oil major, BP, which partners with CNPC at the Rumaila field, was given a similar shipment on 18 May.

Under the Rumaila field technical service contract, after increasing production at the field by more than 10 per cent in January, the partners are eligible to receive a remuneration fee of $2 a barrel, as well as recovering capital expenditure investments from the government. The partners are owed about $1bn from the Iraqi Treasury, which they are expected to receive in kind, in the form of crude (MEED 19:5:11).

Two other consortiums are also due to receive payments. Italy’s Eni, along with the US’ Occidental and South Korea’s Kogas at the Zubair field is one. The other is led by the US’ ExxonMobil and UK-Dutch Shell at the West Qurna-1 field.

Iraq earned a total of more than $7.34bn from crude oil exports in April. Approximately 64.2 million barrels of oil were exported in the month, with 49.7 million barrels from oil terminals at Basra and Khor Alamya (MEED 24:5:11).