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3. Iraq Asks Iran for Oil Tanker Passage through Strait of Hormuz

Iraq was in contact with Iran to try to arrange passage for some of its oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the country's oil minister told local media.

A founding member of the OPEC cartel, crude oil sales make up 90 percent of Iraq's budget revenues. Before the outbreak of war on February 28, Iraq mainly shipped its oil -- roughly 3.5 million barrels per day -- from the southern Basra fields via the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran has closed the strait, through which as much as a fifth of the world's global crude oil and liquefied natural gas is normally shipped, to vessels from most countries.

"Communications are underway with the relevant authorities to authorise the passage of certain oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, in order that we can resume our exports," Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel Ghani told local TV station al-Sharqiya, referring to the Iranians.

"We need to provide them with the identity of these ships, their name, their affiliation, who owns them," he added.

Iraq has been scrambling to find a solution to export its oil, and there have been long-running talks with Iraqi Kurdistan to export oil through the autonomous region.

Kurdish authorities had asked for several measures in return, including that Baghdad facilitates the region's access to US dollars through banks.

Late Tuesday, the Kurdistan region's Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said oil exports would "flow through the Kurdistan Region's pipeline as soon as possible".

He gave no further details, or indications about a possible timeline.

Barzani also said discussions with Baghdad "will continue with urgency to lift the restrictions on imports and trade into the Kurdistan Region".

AFP