Iraq exported 10 million barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz in April, far below the roughly 93 million barrels per month it shipped before the Iran war, according to Oil Minister Basim Mohammed cited by Reuters via gCaptain. For TankerMap, the datapoint is a sharp measure of how deeply tanker access through the chokepoint has been constrained by war-risk conditions and insurance barriers.
The minister said tanker arrivals remain limited because ships are not entering the strait due to insurance concerns. He added that Iraq is producing 1.4 million barrels per day and is relying partly on the Kirkuk-Ceyhan route, with about 200,000 barrels exported via Turkey’s Ceyhan port and plans to raise that to 500,000 barrels. The shift matters for tanker markets because it underlines how disrupted Gulf export logistics are still pushing barrels toward alternative routes while normal Hormuz volumes remain badly depressed.