Iraq: Oil exports rise to 2 million barrels per day for the first time since the start of the Strait of Hormuz crisis

Baghdad, August 14 (KUNA) -- Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Muhammad said on Friday that the country’s crude oil exports have risen since the beginning of August to a rate of two million barrels per day, marking the first time since the onset of the Strait of Hormuz crisis. Muhammad stressed at a press conference that the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) and other Iraqi oil companies are making exceptional efforts to boost oil exports, as oil revenues account for 85 percent of the country’s general budget. Iraqi oil exports had declined sharply following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of Iraq’s oil exports pass, negatively affecting the country’s financial revenues and triggering a severe internal financial crisis. (End) A.H.H./M.K.