ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq is planning to increase oil exports via Syria and Turkey to one million barrels per day, Baghdad’s oil minister said, days after he noted that the Iraqi government is pushing to bolster total daily exports to five million barrels per day.
“Iraq is exporting around three million barrels per day in September,” said Bassim Khudair in remarks he gave to the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA), adding that “there is a future plan to increase export capacity via pipelines through Syria and the Turkish port of Ceyhan to exceed one million barrels [per day].”
Days earlier, Khudair on Saturday said Iraq is planning to “raise export capacity to five million barrels of oil per day upon completion of the strategic pipelines extending toward Peshkhabur and Baniyas, in addition to export outlets through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Peshkhabur is located in the northwestern part of the Kurdistan Region, at the tripoint where its borders meet with those of Syria and Turkey. It serves as the primary border transit station and metering hub for oil exports from the Region and Kirkuk, before crossing into Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
The remarks come a day after the monthly report by Iraq’s national marketer, the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), showed that the country exported 73.69 million barrels of oil in August - of those exports from the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk oilfields via Ceyhan reached only 3.93 million barrels.
The decline was recorded despite Iraq in August signing a one-year deal with Turkey which set an initial export capacity of around 750,000 bpd, contingent on security conditions, the restoration of oil production in the Kurdistan Region, and the completion of logistical preparations needed to move larger volumes of southern Iraqi crude northward.
The signing of the latter accord coincided with Baghdad’s efforts to find alternative routes to export oil in light of ongoing disruptions to shipping via the Strait of Hormuz - a major energy chokepoint through which roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies pass. The Strait emerged as a flashpoint since the outbreak of the six week war in late February when the US and Israel launched a joint aerial campaign, striking thousands of targets across Iran..
For Iraq, disruptions to the key waterway have dealt a severe blow to the country's oil sector and broader economy, with crude production falling from around 4.14 million bpd before the crisis to as low as 1.49 million bpd at its height, dragging exports down with it.
Moreover, Baghdad in mid-July signed two memoranda of understanding with Damascus and a coalition of international companies for the rehabilitation and revival of the Kirkuk-Baniyas crude oil pipeline, to reactivate the long-dormant 800-kilometer energy corridor connecting northern and central Iraqi fields to the Syrian coast on the Mediterranean.
Prior to that, Iraq in mid-April loaded its first oil tanker for export via Baniyas "onto a tanker in the Mediterranean Sea to make its way to European consumers and refineries in the region," Ali Nizar, Director General of SOMO, said at the time.
The move marked a milestone "in opening a new marketing route that can be utilized in the future, as well as in the current crisis," Nizar added, emphasizing Baghdad's efforts to "maximize and increase Iraqi exports amid all the logistical, technical, and security challenges."
Around the same time, Rudaw learned that Baghdad was exporting hundreds of oil tankers per day through Syria via the al-Waleed border crossing in Iraq's western Anbar province. Emad Masha'al, district manager of Anbar's al-Rutba district, said "between 500 and 700 tankers, each with a capacity of 30 tons, are being dispatched daily."
The reopening of al-Waleed was crucial in enabling Iraqi oil exports through Syria's Mediterranean port of Baniyas, where shipments are stored. Iraq has since announced efforts to reopen additional border crossings with Syria to establish further alternative trade routes.
