Iran allows Iraqi oil tankers through Hormuz

Shafaq News- Tehran

Iran has allowed a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz following repeated requests from Baghdad, state-run Iranian media reported on Saturday.

The outlets did not specify how many tankers received permission, when they would cross or how much crude they were carrying.

Iraqi Parliament Speaker Haibet Al-Halbousi had urged Tehran to give Iraqi oil exports “special consideration” through Hormuz during talks in Baghdad with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who pledged to “raise the issue” after returning to Iran.

Iraq has also been seeking arrangements with Iran and the United States to secure crude shipments through the waterway. A government source told Shafaq News earlier this week that the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) was negotiating with US and German shipping companies over Iraqi-flagged tankers.

Kpler data showed only seven commodity vessels crossed the strait on Thursday, down from 14 a day earlier, with no very large crude carriers or liquefied natural gas tankers among them.

The disruption has sharply reduced Iraq’s southern crude exports. Shipments averaged about 1.4 million barrels per day in July, up from roughly 500,000 bpd in June and 100,000 bpd in May, but still well below pre-disruption Basrah exports of more than 3.3 million bpd.

Baghdad is also pursuing alternative export routes through Turkiye, Syria, and Jordan to reduce its dependence on Hormuz. A proposed pipeline to Syria’s Baniyas port could take about four years to build and cost at least $15 billion.

Read more: No exit but Hormuz: Iraq's economic vulnerability exposed