Iraqi Document Details Two Oil Smuggling Routes Through Iran and Turkey to Evade Sanctions

Key Facts

Alhurra reported that an Iraqi intelligence document describes smuggled Iraqi oil being mixed with Iranian products inside Iran, then documented as Iranian product for export and sanctions evasion. The document, according to the channel, sets out two overland routes for moving oil from Iraq across the border, one toward Iran and Afghanistan and the other toward Turkey. The account is based on a document prepared by the Spatial Intelligence Department in the Directorate of Technology and Information at the Interior Ministry, which falls under the Federal Intelligence and Investigation Agency. The report described the document as "highly confidential" and said it consists of 14 pages. An Iraqi Interior Ministry colonel confirmed its authenticity to Alhurra, but said he could not provide further information because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The eastern route begins, according to Alhurra's account of the document, at the North Oil Company fields in Kirkuk. Shipments are transported under official documents to sites in Sulaymaniyah province before being diverted, according to the allegation in the document, to a smuggling route. Trucks then cross into Iran through the Bashmakh and Parvizkhan border crossings. The document describes Iraqi crude being mixed there with Iranian products and re-documented as Iranian product for export. The method links cross-border oil transport with changing its commercial description to help evade sanctions.

The route extends from Iran toward the Afghan border on Iranian trucks, the report says. Shipments are stored near the border before being distributed to Afghan fuel stations. The document says the oil enters Afghanistan's domestic consumption network and is not re-exported to other markets. Under the account reported by Alhurra, the shipments therefore end up in the Afghan fuel market rather than continuing to a third export market. This detail makes Afghanistan a destination for domestic consumption along the described route, not a re-export hub.

The document describes a separate northern route in which trucks unload their cargo into tanks at the Fishkhabur field in Duhok province. From there, the oil crosses into Turkey through the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing. The document describes Fishkhabur as a "major logistical hub" on this route. This path places a field in the Kurdistan Region within the transport network covered by the document, alongside the eastern route that starts in Kirkuk and passes through Sulaymaniyah. The account gives no figures in this section for shipment volumes or the frequency of crossings.

Alhurra says the document draws on satellite images covering the period from 2021 to summer 2026, and includes maps dated 5 and 6 September 2026. The images, according to the report, show a growing concentration of trucks and storage facilities near the Iranian side of the Bashmakh crossing. A comparison of the images shows an assembly area near the crossing between July 2022 and June 2026. The report also cited images from Parvizkhan in November 2025 and January 2026 showing hundreds of tankers. The document uses these scenes to support its account of transport and storage activity along both routes.

Regarding oil from the Kurdistan Region, the document alleges that DNO markets and sells oil from the Tawke and Fishkhabur fields to local buyers outside the framework of the federal Oil Marketing Company, "SOMO." The document says the company reported delivering the Kurdistan Regional Government's share, which amounts to about 20% of field output, to the federal government for export. By contrast, it alleges that DNO continues to sell its own share, amounting to about 64%, to local buyers in the region. These are allegations made in the document as reported by Alhurra; the channel did not present them as findings of a judicial investigation. The report said DNO did not respond to Alhurra's request for comment by email.

At the official level, the speaker of Iraq's parliament ordered the formation of a temporary parliamentary committee to investigate oil smuggling from Jurf al-Sakhar, the Kirkuk fields and the Kurdistan Region. The document recommends opening a retrospective financial investigation, according to Alhurra, as well as introducing electronic GPS tracking for petroleum-product tankers in Duhok, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk. It also calls for legal action against tankers found without tracking devices. The report said it remained unclear whether the relevant authorities had begun the financial investigation or expanded tracking to tankers in the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk. Implementation of the recommendations, and what any investigations might uncover, therefore remain unresolved.

The case comes amid earlier U.S. actions against networks the Treasury Department said were involved in Iranian oil trade. In an action dating to July 2025, the department said it was the eighth round of sanctions targeting Iranian oil trade since the start of the maximum pressure campaign. In a separate statement, the department accused a network run by Iraqi-British businessman Salim Ahmed Said of selling Iranian oil falsely described as Iraqi since at least 2020, mixing it with Iraqi oil and using forged documents to evade sanctions. It said the blended oil was sold to Western buyers through Iraq or the UAE as pure Iraqi oil. In an action dated 7 May 2026, the department accused Iraqi Deputy Oil Minister Ali Maarij al-Bahadli of facilitating the diversion of petroleum products for the benefit of Said and an Iran-backed militia, and said oil from the Qayyarah field was trucked to Khor al-Zubair port for export and blended with Iranian oil. Those incidents cited by the Treasury differ from the route described in the Iraqi document, in which the blend is documented as Iranian product.