MP clams Iraq pays Iran $20 a barrel to ship through Strait of Hormuz

BAGHDAD — Iraq is paying Iran $20 for every barrel it exports through the Strait of Hormuz, a senior lawmaker said, and could expose the state oil marketer SOMO to U.S. sanctions. He offered no documentation.

“Iran imposes fees and takes money from us on every barrel exported, at $20, and there is no exemption for us,” Mansour al-Baiji, deputy head of the Reconstruction and Development bloc, said on Alawla TV. “Iran takes these fees from SOMO; if the United States learns of this, it will impose sanctions on SOMO, and we will be finished because of those sanctions.”

At the roughly 2 million barrels a day SOMO says Iraq exported in August, $20 a barrel would come to about $1.2 billion a month — close to the entire monthly oil revenue Oil Minister Bassem al-Abadi described in July, when he said income had fallen to about $1.5 billion from between $7 billion and $8 billion before the conflict.

Baiji also put current exports at more than 3 million barrels a day. SOMO director general Ali Nizar said this week that Iraq reached about 2 million a day in August, its highest since the disruption began, using a shuttle system that moves crude from Basra through Hormuz onto larger tankers or floating storage near Sohar in Oman, with discounts of $25 to $29.80 a barrel offered on some August-loading Basrah crude.

He said the federal budget would reach parliament on Oct. 10 with limited resources. “The budget will arrive on Oct. 10, but it will be poor and its funds will be very limited because exports were very low,” he said. “Even during these days when we are exporting more, we are selling it at a low price.”

Baiji separately said President Donald Trump had asked Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi to extend the coalition’s presence by six months, and that Zaidi refused, telling him armed factions would extend their own activities by the same period. The government has confirmed that Zaidi rejected a request for part of the coalition to remain beyond Sept. 30 but declined to say who made it. He said bringing weapons under state control could take about four months after that date.

Baghdad asked Tehran in August to give Iraqi exports special consideration through Hormuz.