Russia, Iraq oil supplies highest in decades as 2015 begins with glut

London

OIL supplies in Iraq and Russia surged to the highest level in decades, signalling no respite in early 2015 from the glut that has pushed crude prices to their lowest in five years.

Russian oil production rose 0.3 per cent in December to a post-Soviet record of 10.667 million barrels a day, according to preliminary data by CDU-TEK, part of the Energy Ministry. Iraq exported 2.94 million barrels a day in December, the most since the 1980s, said Oil Ministry spokesman Asim Jihad. The countries provided 15 per cent of the world's oil in November, according to the International Energy Agency.