Iraq has exported more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day since early October — OilPrice
Since the beginning of October, Iraq has been exporting an average of more than 3.4 million barrels of oil per day. Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair told the state news agency INA, OilPrice reports. This is approaching the 3.3–3.5 million barrels per day that the country supplied before the war with Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Increase in supplies
Compared with September, when average exports amounted to 2.65 million barrels per day, the October figure increased by about 750,000 barrels. In September, around 250,000 barrels per day were transported via the Iraq–Turkey pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.
According to Khudair, Iraq uses three routes for exports: through the Strait of Hormuz, to Ceyhan, and by tanker trucks through Syria. The Syrian Petroleum Company expected the first trucks carrying Iraqi oil to reach the Mediterranean port by mid-October. Most Iraqi oil is still loaded at southern terminals in Basra and transported through the strait.
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Supplies beyond the strait
Baghdad has also begun independently delivering oil beyond the Strait of Hormuz. Buyers want to receive cargoes outside the strait in order to avoid insurance surcharges related to war risks. The state-owned Iraqi Oil Tankers Company transported 2 million barrels of oil through the strait on a very large crude carrier.
According to OilPrice, this was the first time in decades that state marketer SOMO transported its own oil beyond the Strait of Hormuz. Previously, under FOB delivery terms, buyers collected cargoes in Basra and bore the transit risks themselves. The company is negotiating the purchase of its own oil tankers.
In the first months of the war, production in southern Iraq fell by about 70%, to around 1.3 million barrels per day, the publication notes. Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein last week estimated the country's losses at about $60 billion. Baghdad plans to increase export capacity to 5 million barrels per day after completing new pipelines to Fishkhabur and the Syrian port of Baniyas, as well as new export terminals in Hormuz.
