Iraq exported 10 million barrels of oil via the Strait of Hormuz in April, down from about 93 million barrels monthly before the Iran war, the country’s new oil minister, Basim Mohammed, said at a press conference on Saturday.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the Iran war has curtailed oil exports from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq, sending prices sharply higher.
Iraq’s crude exports through the Kirkuk–Ceyhan oil pipeline resumed in March, after Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government agreed on restarting flows.
“We export 200,000 barrels through Ceyhan port, and we have a plan to increase it to 500,000 barrels”, Mohammed said.
Iraq plans to engage with OPEC to boost the country’s production and export capacity, the minister said, adding that Baghdad aims to reach a production capacity of 5 million barrels per day.
(Reporting by Muayad Hameed, Writing by Ahmed Elimam, Editing by Louise Heavens, Kirsten Donovan)