- A Reuters examination discovered that over 1,000 tanker trucks are smuggling at least 200,000 barrels of Kurdish oil per day to Iran and Turkey.
- The smuggling operation creates an approximated $200 million in month-to-month profits, however the location of the funds stays uncertain.
- The illegal trade has thrived because a pipeline to Turkey was closed in March 2023 due to a conflict over export rights.
Kurdistan hasn’t been able to export its oil bymeansof a pipeline for more than a year now, however crude continues to circulation out of the semi-autonomous Iraqi area—on tank trucks to the border with Iran.
More than 1,000 such tank trucks are approximated to be transferring at least 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Kurdish oil to Iran and Turkey, a Reuters examination has discovered.
Although the rate of the crude being smuggled out of the northern semi-autonomous area is apparently around $40 per barrel in these dirty offers, the trade is profitable, particularly compared to the difficulties the Kurdistan local federalgovernment hasactually seen without oil profits over the past year.
The smuggling is approximated to be bringing around $200 million per month, according to Reuters, whose pressreporters talked with more than 20 individuals, consistingof oil engineers, oil market sources, traders, federalgovernment authorities, politicalleaders, and diplomats.
Some of these sources informed Reuters that the oil smuggling was mostlikely takingplace with the understanding of the local and federal federalgovernments. Once in Iran, the oil is crammed onto ships at the Iranian ports in the Gulf at Bandar Imam Khomeini and Bandar Abbas, or moved by roadway to Afghanistan and Pakistan, market, political, and diplomatic sources informed Reuters.
Other sources stated that no one actually understands what takesplace with the $200 million regularmonthly earnings from these operations.
The smuggling company has flourished consideringthat the closure of the pipeline path to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, which the semi-autonomous area of OPEC’s second-largest manufacturer utilized to ship its oil abroad till March 2023.
These exports through pipeline to Turkey, of about 450,000 bpd, stopped last year after they were shut in in March 2023 due to a disagreement over who needto license the Kurdish exports.
The deadlock followe