Iraq exported 30mn barrels of crude via Hormuz in a month: monitor

BAGHDAD: Iraq exported over 30 million barrels of crude oil in one month through the strategic Strait of Hormuz, data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler showed on Tuesday.

Before the Middle East war, which choked shipments through the vital waterway, Iraq produced around four million barrels per day, and exported an average of 105 million barrels per month, mostly from its Basra oil terminal via Hormuz.

Around 30 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil passed through Hormuz between July 4 and August 4, according to vessels detected by Kpler.

Ali Nizar, the head of Iraq’s State Organisation for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), said in a TV interview Monday that Iraq exported in July “35.5 to 37 million barrels” via Hormuz.

Another seven million barrels were exported through an Iraq-Turkey pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Iraqi oil ministry spokesman Salim al-Rikabi told the state news agency INA on Tuesday that some tankers had passed through Hormuz after loading, adding that “the ministry is not responsible for their routes or the necessary approvals”.

According to data from SOMO, Iraq exported via several routes just over 32 million barrels of crude oil in May and June, including more than 20 million barrels from its southern port.

Crude exports normally account for about 90 percent of Iraq’s revenues.

They used to fill the state’s coffers with up to $8 billion a month, but now they barely exceed $1.5 billion, oil minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said last month.

Iraq, an OPEC founding member, was forced to halt production in most of its oil fields during the war as reservoirs filled up.

Due to the waterway disruption, it began exporting crude using tanker trucks through Syria, and a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.