Iraq Trials Road Transport of Southern Crude to Kirkuk to Lift Ceyhan Exports

Iraq has carried out a pilot operation to move crude oil by road from its southern oilfields to a storage facility in Kirkuk, part of efforts to raise supplies into the northern export system and potentially increase shipments through Turkey's Ceyhan port.

The trial ran from September 13 for two days. During that period, 209 tanker trucks, each with a capacity of 30,000 litres, moved a little more than 6 million litres of crude — equivalent to about 38,000 barrels — according to state-run Basra Oil Company.

The oil ministry has contracted local firm KAR Group to handle the transport using its fleet of tanker trucks, an oil ministry spokesperson said. The arrangement was also confirmed in a statement issued by Basra Oil Company. KAR Group did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

"The contract with KAR Group is based on total volumes delivered by tanker truck," oil ministry spokesperson Saleem al-Rikabi said, adding that daily transported volumes depend on the number of tankers deployed, loading capacity, road conditions, security clearances and other logistical factors.

The initiative is part of wider Iraqi efforts to increase flows through the northern export route after the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran disrupted the country's shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, its main export channel.

Oil ministry figures put current flows from northern Iraq to Ceyhan at about 200,000 barrels per day, down from around 250,000 bpd before the Iran war.

The project faces logistical constraints, including limited truck availability and constrained loading infrastructure at southern oilfields, according to Basra Oil Company sources. The initial volumes remain too small to materially increase northern exports without a significant expansion of transport and loading capacity.