ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s oil ministry undersecretary said Sunday that plans to export an additional four million barrels over the next few days have been canceled after a tanker loaded with two million barrels of Iraqi oil turned back following Iran’s renewed closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Basim Mohammed Khudhair, the federal Oil Ministry’s undersecretary, told Rudaw that two ships scheduled to arrive in Basra on April 21 and 22 to load four million barrels of oil were canceled after a vessel that had anchored at Basra port on Thursday evening to load two million barrels was forced to turn back after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) moved to close the chokepoint to commercial traffic.
Iran initially closed the waterway on March 8, roughly a week after the outbreak of a nearly 40-day conflict with the United States and Israel. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Friday that the waterway - which typically carries around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas - is open in line with a halt to Israel’s attacks on Iran’s ally Hezbollah in Lebanon, a key Iranian demand tied to a broader ceasefire with Washington.
US President Donald Trump welcomed Iran’s announcement in a post on Truth Social, saying an American blockade on Iranian ports will remain until a deal is reached. In response, the IRGC reinstated what it described as “strict management” of the waterway, citing what it called repeated US breaches of commitments.