Ankara: Iraq has boosted its crude oil export capacity to more than 3 million barrels per day (bpd) and plans to raise it to 5 million as it develops new routes away from the Strait of Hormuz, Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair said on Saturday. Khudair noted that the exports have reached around 3 million bpd since the start of September.

According to Anadolu Agency, the government aims to increase capacity to 5 million bpd once strategic pipelines linking Iraqi fields to Fishkhabur in the north and Syria's Mediterranean port of Banias are completed. Baghdad is also seeking to expand alternative export outlets as it looks to reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz.

Last month, Prime Minister Ali Faleh al-Zeidi ordered work to proceed on two strategic pipeline routes - Basra-Haditha-Fishkhabur and Haditha-Banias. The northern route would connect southern oil fields with Fishkhabur near the Turkish border, opening access to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline and Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan.

The western route would link Haditha with Syria's Banias port, providing Iraq with another outlet to the Mediterranean and potentially reviving a historic oil corridor between the two countries. The government stated that the project is intended to diversify export routes and strengthen Iraq's capacity to move crude abroad.

Iraq holds around 145 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, according to official figures. Its oil output fell to around 1.3 million bpd during the US-Israeli war on Iran that began in late February, down from 3.3 million before the conflict, before beginning to recover in July and August. The push for alternative export routes comes amid continuing disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz linked to tensions between Washington and Tehran.