Iraq’s state-owned Iraqi Oil Tankers Company has moved 2 million barrels of Iraqi crude beyond the Strait of Hormuz aboard a very large crude carrier, Director General Ali Qais Abdul Jabbar said Saturday, according to the Iraqi News Agency. It is the first time in decades the company has carried Iraqi crude past the strait, and the operation shifts part of Iraq’s sales away from the decades-old model in which buyers arranged their own tankers to collect oil at the Port of Basra.
The VLCC was chartered after the company held talks with several specialized firms, Qais said in video comments carried by the Oil Ministry. The shipment gives the Iraqi Oil Marketing Company more flexibility in how and where it sells, he said, opening better sales and pricing opportunities. Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair said separately that Iraq is seeking funding to buy and own its own tankers, which would support exports and raise financial returns.
The strategy mirrors what producers across the region are doing. Middle East oil exporters are rushing to lock in tanker capacity to keep crude and refined-fuel flows moving through Hormuz despite the war, and Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.’s shipping arm is among those expanding its fleet, Bloomberg reported. Iraq had previously secured Iranian permission for its tankers to transit the strait; Tehran has effectively closed the waterway during its conflict with the United States.
The commercial logic is straightforward. Refiners that do not want to send their own vessels into a combat zone can now take Iraqi barrels delivered outside the Gulf, which should let SOMO cut the discounts it offers to attract buyers to its southern terminals. Qais did not identify the VLCC, its owner, the destination or the buyer.