Iraq oil exports via Hormuz top 30m barrels, Kpler says

Iraq exported more than 30 million barrels of crude oil through the Strait of Hormuz in one month, maritime tracking firm Kpler data showed Tuesday, as the country tries to keep shipments moving through a disrupted export route.

Kpler said vessels it detected carried around 30 million barrels of Iraqi crude through Hormuz between July 4 and August 4.

Ali Nizar, head of Iraq's State Organisation for Marketing of Oil, said in a television interview Monday that Iraq exported “35.5 to 37 million barrels” via Hormuz in July. He said another seven million barrels were exported through an Iraq-Turkey pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Before the Middle East war choked shipments through the 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.

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

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

Crude exports normally make up about 90 percent of Iraq's revenues. Oil minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said last month that oil revenues, which once reached up to $8 billion a month, now barely exceed $1.5 billion.

Iraq has halted production in most of its oil fields during the war as reservoirs filled up. It has also begun exporting crude by tanker truck through Syria and by pipeline to Ceyhan.