Register for MEED’s 14-day trial access 

A lack of truck-loading facilities at oil fields in southern Iraq is restricting the country’s exports, according to industry sources.

Since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, Iraq’s exports shipped through the Strait of Hormuz have been severely disrupted, increasing the country’s reliance on exporting crude using trucks and pipelines.

In April, Iraq’s state-owned oil marketing company, Somo, said it had awarded contracts to supply about 650,000 metric tonnes of fuel oil a month for overland trucking across Syria.

On top of this, Iraq is also transporting oil by truck from the south of the country to export pipeline infrastructure in the north.

One industry source said: “Moving crude by truck is very inefficient and expensive compared to using a big pipeline or large ships.

“Iraq’s infrastructure was not designed with the idea of using trucks to move crude at the current scale.

“The current level of exports is a fraction of what was being exported before the disruption to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz started.

“There are a lot of problems that are emerging and these include a lack of truck-loading facilities at oil fields in the south of the country.

“Many fields don’t have the truck loading stations, loading arms, pumps and meters that are needed to increase truck export volumes.”

Iraq exported 10 million barrels of crude in April, an 89% drop from the 93 million barrels exported the month before the Iran conflict.

READ: Gulf races to reroute trade