ISTANBUL

Iraq’s North Oil Company said Wednesday it resumed oil exports through Türkiye’s Ceyhan port, restarting crude flows from the Kirkuk fields after nearly three years of suspension.

In a statement carried by the state news agency INA, the company said operations resumed via the Saralo pumping station, with an initial export capacity of 250,000 barrels per day.

The move follows an agreement between Iraq’s federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to reactivate a key export route and support Iraq’s oil export system, the agency reported.

The KRG said Tuesday that it has reached an understanding with Baghdad to resume oil exports through the region to Türkiye’s port of Ceyhan.

The development comes as the Strait of Hormuz has been at the center of global energy concerns since Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced its closure to most vessels in retaliation for US-Israeli attacks that have killed around 1,300 people in Iran since Feb. 28.

Before the conflict, around 20 million barrels of oil passed through the strait daily. Its disruption has pushed oil prices higher.

On Sunday, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said in a statement that it was ready to resume crude exports through the northern pipeline toward Ceyhan Port amid disruptions to southern export routes linked to the crisis in the Strait of Hormuz.