Iraq plans to triple within three months its exports of crude oil through Kurdistan to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan as OPEC’s second-largest producer is one of the Middle East’s producers worst affected by the closed Strait of Hormuz.

The Iraqi government has approved a plan to hike crude exports to Ceyhan and onto international markets from the Mediterranean as the blocked Strait of Hormuz has cut most of Iraq’s oil shipments.

Iraq is seeing the worst of the Middle East crisis as its heavily oil-dependent economy is now collapsing with the trickling oil revenues amid the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.

Iraq has done very little in recent decades to diversify its heavy dependence on oil. Petroleum sales still account for 90% of revenues for state budget. While other producers in the Middle East also depend on oil sales, none is as dependent as Iraq.

Due to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, Iraq has been forced to slash its oil production as its exports from Basra need to transit the world’s most vital oil chokepoint.

Crude oil production from Iraq’s southern fields has plunged by 70% since the start of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, with the average production at 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd), compared with 4.3 million bpd before the war began.

Iraq, unlike Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), doesn’t have any options to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, forcing Baghdad to slash oil production as storage sites and tankers available in the Gulf filled up.

Iraq moved to restore the northern oil export route to send crude from the Kirkuk fields directly to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, as the southern export route via the Strait of Hormuz has been effectively closed for months now.

Initially, Iraq planned to boost pipeline shipments to Ceyhan to 500,000 bpd, but the government now aims to top that to up to 770,000 bpd within two and a half months.Editor/Yang Meiling