ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq can resume oil production at a higher capacity and pump three million barrels per day within one week should the Strait of Hormuz be reopened to international navigation, an official from the oil ministry told state media on Tuesday.

The country’s southern ports, along with the oil ministry’s emergency planning and the single buoy mooring system are at a “high operational readiness level,” Oil Ministry Undersecretary Bassem Mohammed Khudair told Iraq’s state-owned al-Sabah newspaper.

Khudair added that Iraq has the “technical readiness” to increase production to over three million barrels per day within 168 hours of the vital waterway’s opening.

The closure of the strategic chokepoint as a result of the US-Iran conflict has proven particularly consequential for Iraq’s ability to export its oil. Iraqi oil exports plummeted by over 80 percent after the closure of the strait, going from nearly 100 million barrels in February down to 18.6 million barrels in March at the height of the conflict.

Oil revenues in March were just shy of $2 billion, compared to the $6 billion brought in just a month earlier before the beginning of the conflict, according to data from the oil ministry.

The 80 percent plunge came despite Iraq turning to Turkey’s Ceyhan port in a scramble to boost exports, after reaching a deal with the Kurdistan Region. Khudair said that approximately 200,000 barrels per day from the Kirkuk fields have been exported through Turkey.

He added that Baghdad is looking to enhance alternative transportation and export routes to alleviate risks associated with regional crises, adding that efforts are underway to diversify transportation routes by employing the Turkish pipeline as well as through Syria, to reduce reliance on a single route.

The Iraqi oil ministry said in April that it aims to increase exports via the northern route to around 650,000 barrels per day by rehabilitating the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and ramping up production in both federal and Kurdistan Region fields.