ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq pocketed more than $7 billion in oil revenues for the month of October, with exports amounting to nearly 111 million barrels, the oil ministry announced on Tuesday. 

“Exports of crude oil, including condensates, amounted to 110,923,047 barrels, generating revenues exceeding $7,030,689,000,” the ministry said in a statement. 

Exports from the Kurdistan Region through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline reached 5,834,864 barrels, according to the ministry, while an additional 272,077 barrels were sold to Jordan, according to the ministry. 

Iraq’s current production capacity sits at around 4 million barrels per day, according to an agreement with OPEC+, of which nearly 700,000 barrels are used domestically.

The Kurdistan Region has also begun exporting oil through Turkey’s Ceyhan port through the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) following the resumption of exports after a breakthrough was reached between Erbil, Baghdad, and international oil companies. 

Kurdish oil exports through Ceyhan resumed in September, ending a 30-month hiatus that resulted in an estimated $30 billion in lost revenue to Iraq.

The Kurdistan Region’s oil exports through Turkey’s Ceyhan port had been halted since March 2023, when a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Ankara had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to start selling oil independently in 2014, awarding the case to Baghdad. 

Oil sales provide more than 90 percent of Iraq’s revenue, and the state’s economy and spendings are highly dependent on its oil sector.