ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair said Friday that the country’s oil exports have reached around two million barrels per day (bpd) since the beginning of August, coming after a sharp decline in previous months due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

The minister’s remarks came during a press conference with Basra Governor Asaad al-Eidani at the inauguration of the al-Faihaa oil field’s central gas processing plant.

Khudair said “negotiations are ongoing with the concerned parties” regarding the country’s oil exports, adding that “since the beginning of the month, exports have reached an average of two million barrels.”

He detailed that exports for July totaled 49 million barrels, averaging around 1.5 million bpd.

The US-Iran war, and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz, took a significant toll on Iraq’s oil exports and its economy, as the country exports the majority of its oil through the strategic waterway.

Iraq exported 18.6 million barrels of crude oil in March as the war began, generating about $1.95 billion in revenue, marking a steep plunge compared to February’s 99.8 million barrels that raked in $6 billion.

Baghdad has sought methods to alleviate its difficulties in exporting through the blockaded strait by using alternative routes.

The oil ministry announced in early August that Baghdad signed a one-year agreement with Ankara to transport 750,000 barrels of Iraq’s oil through the Ceyhan pipeline daily, coming after a June memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Iraq and Syria to rehabilitate the Haditha-Baniyas pipeline.

July exports, despite being a considerable increase compared to the time of the outbreak of the war, are still nearly half of what Iraq exported before March.

Khudair noted that “more than 85 percent” of Iraq’s budget depends on oil exports.