In 2005, Iraq's exports averaged just 1.4 million barrels a day, which earned the country about $26 billion. This winter proved disastrous, with January exports failing to reach even 1 million barrels a day, said George Orwel, an analyst with Petroleum Intelligence Weekly in New York.

Iraqi oil production has fallen sharply in recent months amid a series of bureaucratic and political tussles in Baghdad. ... Late last year, output started trailing off. In the last three months of 2005, Iraq produced 1.66 million barrels a day, down from 1.96 million a day in the previous quarter, according to International Energy Agency, the Paris energy watchdog. In January, production sank to 1.5 million barrels a day.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's exports of oil hit their lowest level in December since the war, as the country's oil minister resigned Monday in the wake of protests and riots over soaring gas prices and lengthening lines at the pump.

Only 34.4 million barrels were exported last month, or about 1.1 million barrels per day — the lowest average since Iraq resumed exports after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to figures released Monday.