Iraq seeks funding to buy tankers for state oil fleet

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Oil Ministry is working to secure funding to buy oil tankers for the state-owned Iraqi Oil Tankers Company, Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair said Saturday.

“The ministry… is seeking to provide the necessary financial allocations to purchase oil tankers for the Iraqi Oil Tankers Company, contributing to the development of the company and enabling it to carry out crude oil transportation operations,” Khudair told the state-run Iraqi News Agency.

“Owning oil tankers would support export operations, achieve economic feasibility and increase financial returns,” he said.

The ministry did not say how many tankers it plans to buy, what they would cost or when they would be purchased. Iraq has for years relied almost entirely on chartered foreign tankers to move crude and fuel products.

Iraq’s crude exports averaged about 2.6 million barrels a day in September as of Sept. 21, the Oil Ministry said that day, correcting reports that put the daily rate at 4 million, a figure it said was reached on a single day.

That is up from about 2 million in August and roughly three-quarters of the 3.3 million to 3.5 million exported before shipping through Hormuz was disrupted. Monthly exports fell from more than 99 million barrels in February to 18.6 million in March and fewer than 10 million in April, forcing production cuts.

Iraq has since leaned on the northern route through Turkey and tanker transfers outside Hormuz, signed a memorandum with Syria in July on a pipeline to Baniyas and agreed with Turkey in August on a minimum of 750,000 barrels a day through Ceyhan. Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi said in Berlin last month that Iraq “will not remain hostage to a single corridor.”