Iraq Oil Production and Exports

Fields, grades and export routes

Iraq's output is concentrated in the giant fields of the south around Basra: Rumaila, West Qurna, Majnoon and Zubair, developed since 2009 under service contracts with international companies. The north has the Kirkuk field and the fields of the Kurdistan Region.

Southern crude is sold as Basrah Medium and Basrah Heavy, both medium-to-heavy sour grades priced by the state marketer SOMO against Oman/Dubai for Asia and Brent for Europe. Most cargoes go to India and China. They load at the Basra Oil Terminal and single-point moorings in the northern Gulf, which means every southern barrel must pass the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq has no large bypass pipeline like Saudi Arabia's East-West line.

The only northern outlet is the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean. It was shut in March 2023 after an ICC arbitration ruling ordered Turkey to pay Iraq about $1.5 billion for unauthorised Kurdish exports. Flows restarted on 27 September 2025 under an interim deal between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government, at an initial 180,000–190,000 b/d, Reuters reported.

Iraq in the 2026 Iran war

After the conflict began on 28 February 2026 and tanker traffic through Hormuz collapsed, Iraqi storage filled within weeks. On 17 March the Oil Ministry declared force majeure on foreign-operated oilfields and ordered shutdowns. Basra Oil Company cut output from 3.3 million b/d to about 900,000 b/d, keeping only what domestic refineries needed, Reuters reported. Brent passed $110 per barrel in the days that followed.

The northern pipeline became the only working export route, carrying about 200,000 b/d to Ceyhan in late March. In August 2026 the government approved new pipeline projects, including Basra-Haditha-Fish Khabur to link with the Kirkuk-Ceyhan line and a Haditha-Banias line through Syria, with a goal of 5 million b/d of export capacity. These will take years to build.

Exports recovered as some tankers moved through Hormuz in convoys and under Iranian transit controls. The Oil Ministry said exports averaged more than 2.2 million b/d in August 2026, the highest since the crisis began, with production above 3 million b/d. Its interim figure for September was about 2.6 million b/d, still well below pre-war levels. From 1 September 2026 private and international traders were allowed to export crude alongside SOMO. Renewed Iranian attacks on tankers in October put the recovery at risk; follow the latest in our oil price news.

OPEC+ quotas and compliance

Iraq is a founding member of OPEC and part of the group of seven OPEC+ countries that carried voluntary cuts from 2023. It repeatedly produced above its quota in 2024 and 2025 and agreed to compensation cuts to make up for the excess. Official figures and OPEC's secondary-source estimates often differ, partly because Kurdish production is counted differently. In 2026 the quota is not the binding limit: export capacity through Hormuz is.

Dependence on oil revenue

Oil makes up about 90% of Iraq's government revenue, according to the IMF, and nearly all of its exports. The IMF put Iraq's fiscal break-even oil price at about $95 per barrel in 2024 and about $92 in 2025. The 2026 export collapse showed the risk: high prices are of little use when barrels cannot leave the country. Iraq's public-sector wage bill depends on monthly oil receipts, so export disruptions quickly become budget problems. For how Gulf supply shocks feed into prices, see what moves oil prices.