Iraq exported over 30 million barrels of crude oil in one month through the Strait of Hormuz, data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler showed on Tuesday.Before the Iran war, which choked shipments through the vital 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 the strait.Around 30 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil passed through the waterway between July 4 and Aug. 4, according to vessels detected by Kpler.Ali Nizar, the head of Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil, said in a TV interview Monday that Iraq exported in July 35.5-37 million barrels via the strait.Another seven million barrels were exported through an Iraq-Turkey pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.Iraqi oil ministry spokesman Salim al-Rikabi told the state news agency INA on Tuesday that some tankers had passed through Hormuz after loading, adding that “the ministry is not responsible for their routes or the necessary approvals.”Crude exports normally account for about 90% of Iraq’s revenues. They used to fill the state’s coffers with up to $8 billion a month, but now they barely exceed $1.5 billion, oil minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said last month.Iraq, an OPEC founding member, was forced to halt production in most of its oil fields during the war as reservoirs filled up.Due to the waterway disruption, it began exporting crude using tanker trucks through Syria, and a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.AFP
