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Iraq is currently exporting 200,000 barrels a day (b/d) of oil via the Iraq-Turkiye Pipeline (ITP), according to an official.

Speaking a week after the pipeline reopened, Amer Khalil, director general of Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company, told the Iraqi news outlet Rudaw that the volumes of crude transported via the pipeline are expected to further increase over the coming weeks.

“Currently, the export of Kirkuk and Kurdistan Region oil through the region’s pipeline to the port of Ceyhan is approximately 200,000 barrels,” he said.

The pipeline is expected to start transporting 300,000 b/d “in the near future”, according to Khalil.

Officials say the crude being shipped is a blend of oil from the Kirkuk fields and production from the Kurdistan Region, with the Kurdistan Region contributing about 40,000 b/d.

Khalil also highlighted strong market interest in the shipments. “Due to its high quality, there is a high demand for Kirkuk oil," he said, noting that sales of the exported crude have already begun.

The renewed exports come after the first shipment of Kirkuk oil was dispatched last week through the ITP, which transports crude to the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Last week, Erbil and Baghdad reached a key agreement to export Kirkuk’s oil via the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Turkey.

The agreement came shortly after Iraq’s oil ministry warned that blocking oil exports through the key pipeline posed a “major risk” to the country’s interests.

The ministry said earlier that such exports could help “alleviate the severity of the crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz” amid escalating regional tensions.

Since the Strait of Hormuz was closed, the federal government has been seeking alternative routes to export its crude, which accounts for around 90% of the country’s revenues.

Iraqi oil production has slumped amid the ongoing Iran war, with storage tanks reaching high and critical levels while the country is unable ​to export crude via the Strait of Hormuz.

Output from Iraq’s main southern oil fields has fallen by about 80% to around 800,000 b/d.

Prior to the conflict, Iraq exported about 3.4 million b/d. With southern routes offline, the country is now relying only on the northern corridor through Turkey to sustain its oil exports.