ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s oil exports and revenues fell sharply in March, dropping from over 99 million barrels in February to under 19 million, according to oil ministry data, as disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to hamper maritime traffic.
The Iraqi oil ministry said Monday that crude exports, including condensates, totaled 18.6 million barrels in March, generating about $1.96 billion in revenue, citing official figures from the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO). The figures mark a steep decline from February, when Iraq exported more than 99 million barrels and generated $6.81 billion in revenue - a drop of over 80 percent.
The downturn comes after Iran restricted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz from March 8 in response to the US and Israeli military campaign launched on February 28. Iraq managed to export around 15 million barrels in early March through the Strait of Hormuz.
The strategic waterway, which handles around 20 percent of global seaborne oil trade, has seen limited activity even following a two-week ceasefire between Washington and Tehran.
Before the war, Iraq exported around 3.4 million barrels per day. Since the disruption, Baghdad has sought alternative export routes, as oil accounts for about 90 percent of state revenues. After southern exports were halted, Iraq has relied on northern routes through Turkey.
In late March, it also began exporting oil through Syria via tankers through the al-Waleed border crossing in Anbar province.
According to the ministry, exports from central and southern oil fields totaled 14 million barrels in March. Shipments from the Kurdistan Region via Turkey’s Ceyhan port amounted to 1.2 million barrels, while Kirkuk exports through the same port reached 2.7 million barrels.
In mid-March, Baghdad and Erbil reached an agreement to resume exporting Kirkuk oil through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Turkey. Exports through the Kurdistan Region had been suspended since March 2023, when a Paris-based arbitration ruling halted shipments to Turkey.
The ministry said earlier in March that resuming northern exports could help “alleviate the severity of the crisis.”
On Thursday, the ministry said no tanker carrying Iraqi oil had passed through the Strait despite the ceasefire. However, data from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) showed that a tanker capable of carrying 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude transited the waterway on Saturday.
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