Iraq Discussed Hormuz Transit for Its Tankers as It Considered Alternative Northern Export Routes
Key Facts
On March 17, 2026, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said it was in contact with Iran to allow some Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, as Baghdad considered a northern route to export crude through Turkey’s Ceyhan port. The discussion concerned negotiations over tanker transit, not an Iraqi-Iranian agreement on alternative routes. The Iraqi News Agency quoted the oil minister as saying Baghdad was in contact with Tehran on the matter. The move reflects the importance of keeping crude exports flowing amid disruption to regional shipping. The northern proposal was separate from talks on passage through the strait.
The sensitivity of exports for the budget is clear from the Iraqi government’s reliance on oil sales, which account for about 90% of its revenue, according to an Associated Press report published in July. Before the war, Basra’s exports exceeded 3 million barrels per day, the same report said. These figures show the scale of the flows that passed through the south before they were disrupted, and explain Baghdad’s effort to diversify export outlets. But they do not establish that Iraq was carrying out a secret plan to move oil to the Red Sea in March. In November, Reuters reported that Iraq’s losses from the war and export disruptions had reached $60 billion through November 8.
Separately, Iraqi officials discussed a pipeline from Basra to Aqaba that could enable oil exports via the Red Sea or the Suez Canal, according to the Associated Press. Baghdad also proposed a project linking Basra to Haditha and then to Ceyhan and Baniyas, with expected capacity of about 2 million barrels per day, the agency reported. These projects remained proposals; reports did not specify when they would begin operating. In August, an Iraqi-Turkish agreement set a minimum export level of 750,000 barrels per day through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, while volumes shipped through it at the time were about 200,000 barrels per day, according to the Associated Press. That agreement is separate from the broader proposed pipeline project via Haditha.
Iraq’s oil minister described the Syrian pipeline as a branch of a wider network linking Haditha to Baniyas and Fishkhabour. On November 5, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said he would remove obstacles to a planned pipeline to transport Iraqi oil to ports on the Mediterranean and Red seas. His office did not specify the ports, route, cost or timeline.
Data cited by Reuters from Iraqi officials showed exports recovering to about 3.5 million barrels per day in October, from 2.65 million barrels per day in September. In July, the Associated Press said the proposed pipeline via Haditha to Ceyhan and Baniyas could carry about 2 million barrels per day, while noting that moving some shipments by land to Syria and then to European markets was less efficient and more costly than shipping through the strait. The agency estimated that about 23 million barrels per day passed through Hormuz before the war, citing Goldman Sachs. Those figures provide context on the scale of reliance on the strait and do not represent flows through the proposed pipelines. On November 8, Reuters reported Iraqi understandings with the United States on allowing oil exports through Hormuz.