Iraq Oil Exports Through Hormuz Collapse 90 Percent Amid Iran War

Basim Mohammed Khudhair, Iraq's newly appointed Oil Minister, announced that Iraqi oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz plummeted to 10 million barrels in April, a dramatic decline from approximately 93 million barrels per month before the war with Iran. Khudhair attributed the collapse to the closure of the strait and insurance complications preventing oil tankers from entering the region. To offset the losses, Iraq resumed crude exports through the Kirkuk–Ceyhan pipeline in March and plans to increase those flows from 200,000 to 500,000 barrels. The pipeline restart followed an agreement between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government. Khudhair outlined broader strategies to collaborate with foreign firms including Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Halliburton, and to engage with OPEC to raise Iraq's production capacity to 5 million barrels per day. The Iraqi government is also negotiating a new cooperation agreement with Turkey covering both upstream and downstream projects.