Shafaq News- Baghdad

Expanding the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline offers Iraq the fastest route to diversify its oil exports, alongside planned links toward Syria and western Iraq and temporary use of tanker trucks, oil officials and experts told Shafaq News, as OPEC’s second-largest producer steps up efforts to develop alternative outlets and reduce its dependence on the Strait of Hormuz.

According to an Oil Ministry source, the ministry is preparing an integrated plan that includes upgrading existing pipelines and studying new routes, with road transport considered an interim option to keep crude moving until strategic projects are completed.

The source identified Kirkuk-Ceyhan, which links northern Iraq to Turkiye’s Mediterranean coast, as the quickest option from a technical standpoint because existing infrastructure could be upgraded to accommodate larger volumes.

Oil expert Ali Khalil, speaking to Shafaq News, described diversifying Iraq’s oil export outlets as “an economic and security necessity rather than a technical option or a long-term project that could be postponed.” He stressed that Kirkuk-Ceyhan alone would not be sufficient, calling for parallel progress on a connection to Syria’s Mediterranean port of Baniyas and the Basra-Haditha project, allowing Iraq eventually to distribute shipments among different outlets according to security conditions and market requirements.

He called tanker trucks a useful transitional option for moving crude from oil fields to collection centers or border crossings, but ruled them out as a permanent substitute for pipelines because of their higher costs and limited capacity.

Developing the projects would require substantial investment and technical expertise from specialized international companies. Khalil added that foreign firms could also participate in financing, management, and technology transfer through long-term partnerships while allowing Iraq to “maintain sovereignty over its oil resources.”

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Ali Al-Zaidi ordered oil companies to operate around the clock to sustain production and boost exports as restrictions in Hormuz continued to constrain Iraqi shipments, demanding tangible results within one week. He also urged faster pipeline upgrades, additional export routes, and contracts with international companies to market Iraqi crude, calling on officials to use the current crisis to accelerate oil infrastructure projects.

Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair Al-Abadi has also outlined plans for a strategic pipeline running from Basra to Fishkhabur near the Turkish border, with a branch extending to Baniyas on Syria’s Mediterranean coast, as part of efforts to provide additional outlets for Iraqi crude.

Jordan is also under consideration as a potential outlet, parliamentary Oil Committee member Zainab Al-Khazraji previously told Shafaq News.

Al-Abadi recently put Iraq’s crude exports at about 49 million barrels in July, with daily shipments averaging around two million barrels since the beginning of August, the highest level since the regional crisis began. The Oil Ministry, through the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), Basra Oil Company, and other state companies, is also pursuing exceptional contracts to increase shipments.

Iraq derives about 90% of federal revenue from crude exports, leaving its finances highly exposed to disruptions in the strategic waterway, which normally carries roughly one-fifth of global oil supplies. Finance Ministry budget-execution data showed oil accounted for about 79% of state revenue through the end of June, while non-oil income approached 21%, compared with roughly 12% previously reported for overall government income.

Read more: Iraq’s oil bottleneck: Abundance trapped by dependency

Beyond expanding export routes, Prime Minister’s financial and economic adviser Mudher Saleh outlined to Shafaq News a broader strategy for generating greater returns from Iraqi crude through refining, petroleum products, and petrochemical industries.

Saleh estimated that processing one barrel of crude could generate, on average, economic value equivalent to seven barrels exported in raw form, while highlighting a global shift from geopolitics toward geoeconomics, with greater emphasis on developing oil industries near ports and major consumer markets and establishing strategic storage facilities for crude and petroleum products at international hubs.

“The future of energy,” he argued, “is increasingly determined not only by reserves and production, but also by countries’ ability to transform natural resources into integrated industrial, logistical, and technological systems.”

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