Iraqi daily oil exports in August highest since start of war: Minister

Iraq's average daily oil exports since the beginning of August are the highest since the outbreak of the Middle East war between Iran and the United States choked off the Strait of Hormuz, the oil ministry said Friday.

Iraqi Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair told a press conference that "exports since the beginning of the month have reached a rate of two million barrels" per day, for a total of around 26 million barrels.

He said the daily rate had been achieved "for the first time since the crisis began" on Feb. 28 after U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, which retaliated by blocking the waterway crucial for global oil and gas trade.

Before the war, Iraq produced around four million barrels per day, and exported an average of 105 million barrels per month, mostly from its Basra oil terminal via Hormuz.

Ali Nizar, the head of Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), said in a TV interview last week that Iraq exported in July "35.5 to 37 million barrels" via Hormuz.

Another seven million barrels were exported through a pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

According to SOMO data, Iraq exported via several routes just over 32 million barrels of crude oil in May and June, including more than 20 million barrels from its southern port.

Iraq, an OPEC founding member, was forced to halt production in most of its oil fields during the war as reservoirs filled up.

Due to the waterway disruption, it began exporting crude using tanker trucks through Syria, as well as the pipeline to Turkey.