Iraq aims to increase crude oil export capacity from its southern ports to 6 million barrels per day from the current 3.5 million barrels a day capacity

The plan to shut wells at the onshore portions of the Lagunillas and Bachaquero fields near Lake Maracaibo is due to a lack of available storage space as inventories mount due to a drop in exports

The drop in oil demand by refiners at local level and the exports limited to a minimum at global level due to the coronavirus pandemic, pushed storage capacity to the limit in the producing provinces