Iraq has boosted its crude oil exports via the Turkish Mediterranean port Ceyhan to 500,000 barrels per day (bpd), as OPEC’s second-largest producer has started trucking Basrah crude to the pipeline system to the north.
Iraq has hiked exports from Turkey to 500,000 bpd for the first time since pipeline operations resumed in September 2025, climbing from about 350,000 bpd, a source at the North Oil Company told the Kurdistan 24 outlet on Monday.
Since the Iran war began and crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz crippled Iraqi production and exports, the second-biggest oil producer in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia began relying more on alternative routes to ship its oil to customers.
Options aren’t many, and luckily for Baghdad, the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline had resumed operations in September last year, after two and a half years of halt over disagreements between the federal Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Regional Government over how export revenues should be distributed.
With the war in Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz since March 2026, Iraq and all other Gulf producers have sought to accelerate exports from alternative shipping terminals.
Iraq is now shipping about 200,000 bpd of Basrah crude to Ceyhan, according to Kurdistan 24’s source. The Basrah oil from the southern regions reaches collection stations at Sarallu and Khurmala by tanker, and from there is pumped north to Ceyhan.
Crude oil production from Iraq’s southern fields plunged by 70% in the early weeks of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, with the average production at 1.3 million bpd, compared with 4.3 million bpd before the war began.
Output has recovered in recent months, with more oil leaving via Ceyhan, as well as the Strait of Hormuz, where Gulf producers brave the chokepoint with shuttle-shipping and ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman.
Iraq’s oil exports neared pre-war levels at more than 3.4 million bpd in October, Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said last month.
In the longer term, Iraq plans to revive an oil pipeline to ship Iraqi crude to the Syrian Mediterranean coast to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, but this project is three to four years away.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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