Iraq transports two million barrels of oil out of Hormuz

Iraq aims to increase oil production to 10 million barrels per day in the next 5 years

The Iraqi Oil Tanker Company announced the transfer of two million barrels of Iraqi crude oil on a supertanker out of the Strait of Hormuz, in a move it said was the first of its kind “in decades”.

“Based on the directives of the Prime Minister and under the direct supervision of the Minister of Oil, the company has been entrusted with the task of transporting quantities of produced crude oil and transiting them out of the Strait of Hormuz for the first time in decades,” said the company’s general manager, Ali Qais.

The move moves part of the sale of Iraqi oil from delivery at the port of Basra to its transport outside the strait, he said.

The company has been in talks with specialist companies and has been able for the first time to provide a supertanker to load two million barrels of crude oil and transport it out of the strait, “allowing the oil marketing company to benefit from better sales and pricing opportunities”, he said.

This process gives Iraq’s state-owned oil marketing company SOMO greater flexibility in determining how and where crude is sold.

The company is also working on “purchasing and owning tankers specialized in transporting crude oil”, with the aim of developing its capabilities and enabling it to compete with similar shipping companies in the region, Qais said.

Iraq had earlier obtained permission from Iran to transit tankers carrying Iraqi oil from the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran effectively closed during its war with the United States.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi announced last month that his country aims to raise oil production to 10 million barrels per day over the next five years, in parallel with the expansion of associated gas investment to achieve self-sufficiency.