Iraq in talks with Iran to safeguard oil tanker traffic through Hormuz

Iraq’s oil minister said Baghdad is talking to Iran about allowing some of the country’s oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the state news agency reported on Tuesday.

Iraq is also working to restore a disused pipeline that would allow oil to be pumped directly to Turkey’s Ceyhan port without passing through the Kurdistan region, Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said in a video statement released on Monday.

Iraq will complete an inspection of a 100-km (62-mile) section of the pipeline within a week to enable direct exports from Kirkuk, he added.

The reopening of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which has been shut for more than a decade, would offer an alternative export route at a time when shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz is severely disrupted by the war in the Middle East.

The oil ministry has said exports via the route could initially reach around 250,000 barrels per day, rising to about 450,000 bpd if crude from fields in the Kurdistan region is included.