Figure 2. OPEC quotas and production. OPEC’s decisions to reduce its quota from 26.7 MMb/d at the beginning of the year to 24.2 MMb/d on April 1, 2001, were critical to maintain prices within its target price band. Iraq officially suspended its exports during June, 2001, but was rumored to be moving as much as 400,000b/d through Syria. Iraq resumed exports (about 2.1 MMb/d) during July. In response, OPEC’s basket price tumbled to near $22.