Iraq’s oil exports through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Turkey have doubled to 500,000 barrels a day from 250,000, Baz Karim Barzanji, chairman of Erbil-based energy company KAR Group, said in a post on X on Saturday.
The crude is exported by Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), he said.
Barzanji said that if the pipeline reached its maximum export capacity of 1 million barrels a day, about 33% of Iraq’s total oil exports would reach world markets through it.
The northern route lets Iraq ship crude to the Mediterranean without passing through the Strait of Hormuz, where attacks on tankers have disrupted Gulf shipping.
SOMO put the route’s August exports at nearly 4 million barrels, or about 127,000 barrels a day, according to Iraqi news outlet 964media.
Turkey agreed with Iraq in August to take a minimum of 750,000 barrels a day through its Ceyhan port under a one-year agreement.
Iraqi Oil Minister Basim al-Abadi said on October 19 that exports through all routes had risen to more than 3.4 million barrels a day since the start of October.
Barzanji also said the Kurdistan Region’s natural gas network was now fully connected. Gas produced in the region now flows through a single pipeline network from the Khor Mor field to Duhok, supplying power stations, factories and industrial plants, he said.
KAR is a shareholder in the Kurdistan Pipeline Company, which owns the oil export line. Khor Mor is operated by UAE-based Dana Gas and Crescent Petroleum.
