Iraqi oil exports recover 71% of their level; expert: “SOMO has adapted”
Iraqi oil exports recover 71% of their level; expert: “SOMO has adapted”
2026-09-02
Shafaq News – Follow-up
Two Iraqi energy officials said on Wednesday that Iraqi oil exports rose to about 2.34 million barrels per day in August, compared to about 1.35 million barrels per day in July 2026, which an economist considered “SOMO’s success in adapting.”
Preliminary data from oil shipment tracking firms Vortexa and Kpler showed that Iraq’s crude oil exports rose in August to 2.3 million barrels per day and 2.17 million barrels per day respectively, compared with July, but remained below pre-war levels recorded in February, which Vortexa estimated at about 3.7 million barrels per day and Kpler at about 3.362 million barrels.
“Iraq is offering significant discounts… which has encouraged buyers to look for shipping options to get shipments to their destinations,” said June Goh, senior analyst at Sparta Commodities, according to Reuters.
Iran’s official news agency IRNA reported last week that Tehran had granted permission to a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz.
Goh said it was unclear whether the authorization applied to all Iraqi shipments, but Iraq was the only oil producer in the Gulf region that had explicitly received this permission.
Reuters reported that Iraq’s state oil marketing company, SOMO, offered oil shipments for loading in August from the port of Basra at discounts of between $25 and $30 per barrel on a free-on-board (FOB) basis.
Multiple trading sources said that this attracted buyers including major Chinese state-owned oil companies such as PetroChina and Zhenhua Oil, as well as global companies such as Total Energies and trading companies such as Vitol, Trafford, Mercuria and Cathay Petroleum.
In addition, Iraqi economic expert Nabil Al-Marsoumi, in a post on Facebook followed by Shafaq News Agency, considered this increase as clearly indicating SOMO’s success in adapting to the Strait crisis by using price discount policies and adopting a new method of transporting Iraqi oil outside the Strait using small tankers and then selling the oil outside the Strait at rewarding prices.
Returning to the Reuters report, one source said that traders could thus make profits of up to about ten dollars a barrel after deducting shipping and insurance costs estimated at about 17 dollars a barrel if they resold the oil at price premiums.
Another source, an executive at a state-owned oil trading company with direct knowledge of the matter, said PetroChina received six million barrels in July and August from the port.
Kpler data showed that PetroChina also chartered a giant crude oil tanker, the Yuan Gui Yang, to load about 2 million barrels of Basra crude from the giant oil tanker Jamaica Prosperity off the Malaysian port of Linge on August 22.
Kepler added that Jamaica Prosperity, which was also chartered by PetroChina, loaded cargo at the port of Basra on August 6.
Data from the London Stock Exchange Group indicated that the tanker Yuan Joy Yang will unload its cargo in Myanmar this week for the benefit of PetroChina’s refinery in Yunnan province.
Kpler data showed that India’s Reliance Industries received four million barrels of Basra crude in August.
Last week, an official at Bharat Petroleum stated that the company expects to receive its first shipment of Iraqi oil for this fiscal year soon.
Chinese refiners have purchased at least 16 million barrels of Basra crude for delivery in September, according to estimates from several trading sources involved in the market.
Two sources said that half of these quantities were purchased by Rongsheng Petrochemical, China’s largest independent refiner, from Vitol and Total at a premium of nearly $10 a barrel above Dubai prices, for delivery to China.
Another source stated that another independent refiner, Shenghong Petrochemical, had secured two million barrels of Iraqi oil for delivery in September at a price about eight dollars a barrel higher than the price of Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange, for delivery to China.
shafaq.com
