Key facts
- Kurdistan 24's North Oil Company source said Ceyhan exports reached 500,000 bpd from about 350,000 bpd.
- Iraq is shipping about 200,000 bpd of Basrah crude north to Ceyhan, per the same source.
- Iraq's southern field output averaged 1.3 million bpd in the early weeks of the war, down from 4.3 million bpd.
- Iraq plans a pipeline to the Syrian Mediterranean coast to bypass Hormuz, three to four years away.
Iraq has raised crude oil exports through the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan to 500,000 barrels per day, up from about 350,000 bpd, a source at the North Oil Company told Kurdistan 24 on Monday. It is the first time exports from Turkey have reached that level since pipeline operations resumed in September 2025.
The increase reflects Baghdad's search for routes that avoid the Strait of Hormuz, which the report says was blocked by the war in Iran beginning in March 2026. Iraq, the second-largest oil producer in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia, has also begun trucking Basrah crude from the south to collection stations at Sarallu and Khurmala, from where it is pumped north to Ceyhan.
About 200,000 bpd of Basrah crude is now shipped to Ceyhan, according to the Kurdistan 24 source. Production from Iraq's southern fields fell by 70% in the early weeks of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran to an average of 1.3 million bpd, compared with 4.3 million bpd before the war, the report said. Output has recovered in recent months.
Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said last month that Iraq's oil exports neared pre-war levels at more than 3.4 million bpd in October. In the longer term, Iraq plans to revive a pipeline to the Syrian Mediterranean coast to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, a project the report places three to four years away.