Iraq targets 5 mln bpd oil export capacity with new pipeline routes

Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair said the country’s export capacity has already risen above 3 million bpd, with shipments averaging around that level since the beginning of September.

The government expects capacity to reach 5 million bpd once planned pipelines connecting Iraq’s oil-producing regions with Fishkhabur in the north and the Syrian port of Banias on the Mediterranean are completed.

The projects are part of Baghdad’s broader effort to diversify the routes used to transport crude to international markets and provide alternatives to shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Last month, Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zeidi instructed authorities to move forward with two strategic pipelines: the Basra-Haditha-Fishkhabur route and the Haditha-Banias route.

The first would connect oil fields in southern Iraq with Fishkhabur near the Turkish border, providing access to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and Türkiye’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The second would extend from Haditha to the Syrian port of Banias, creating another Mediterranean export outlet and potentially restoring a historic oil transportation corridor between Iraq and Syria.

Baghdad expects the projects to provide greater flexibility for crude exports and strengthen the resilience of the country’s energy infrastructure.

Iraq has approximately 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, according to official figures. The country’s oil production fell to around 1.3 million bpd during the US-Israeli war on Iran that began in late February, compared with 3.3 million bpd before the conflict, before gradually recovering in July and August.

Efforts to establish additional export routes come amid continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz linked to tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Earlier, it was reported that U.S. President Donald Trump had proposed renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself.