Iraq boosted its oil exports in August, with September shipments also set to climb, as wide profits and Iranian approval for its tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz have encouraged buyers, according to industry sources and shipping data.
The recovery in exports for OPEC's second-largest producer, which had been severely curtailed by the near-closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the Iran war on February 28, improves the supply of heavy high-sulphur crude to major importers China and India.
Iraq's oil exports rose to around 2.34 million barrels per day in August from about 1.35 million bpd in July, two Iraqi energy officials said on Wednesday.
Provisional data from shiptracking firms Vortexa and Kpler pegged Iraqi crude exports in August at 2.3 million and 2.17 million bpd, respectively, up from July's level but below February's pre-war level of 3.7 million and 3.362 million bpd.
"Iraq has been giving heavy discounts...which has incentivised buyers to find shipping options to get the cargoes out," Sparta Commodities' senior analyst June Goh said.
Also, Tehran granted permission for a number of Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's state news agency IRNA reported last week.
While it is unclear whether the permission applies to all Iraqi cargoes, Iraq is the only Persian Gulf producer that has explicitly received a permit, Sparta's Goh said.
Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO offered August-loading cargoes from the Basrah terminal at discounts of $25 to $30 a barrel on a free-on-board basis, Reuters reported.
That drew buyers including Chinese state majors PetroChina and Zhenhua Oil, TotalEnergies, Vitol, Trafigura, Mercuria and Cathay Petroleum, multiple trade sources said.
Traders could reap profits of about $10 a barrel after shipping and insurance costs estimated at around $17 a barrel if they resold the oil at premiums, one of those sources said.
PetroChina loaded six million barrels in July and August from the terminal, said another one of the sources, a state oil trading executive with direct knowledge of the matter.
PetroChina also chartered the very large crude carrier Yuan Gui Yang to load about two million barrels of Basrah crude from the VLCC Jamaica Prosperity off Malaysia's Linggi port on August 22, Kpler data showed.
The Jamaica Prosperity, also chartered by PetroChina, loaded at the Basrah terminal on August 6, Kpler said.
The Yuan Gui Yang will discharge in Myanmar this week for PetroChina's refinery in Yunnan province, LSEG data showed.
PetroChina, Zhenhua Oil, Vitol, Mercuria and Cathay Petroleum did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trafigura declined to comment.
Several tankers owned or managed by Sinokor, ADNOC Logistics Services, Bahri and Kylades Maritime loaded at Basrah in August, according to Kpler and trade sources. The shipping firms did not respond to requests for comment.
India's Reliance Industries received four million barrels of Basrah crude in August, Kpler data showed.
Last week, an official at Bharat Petroleum Corporation said the company expects to receive its first Iraqi oil cargo of this fiscal year soon. Reliance has also chartered a very large crude carrier at a record freight rate to lift Iraqi crude.
Chinese refiners have bought at least 16 million barrels of Basrah crude for September arrival, according to estimates from several trade sources who participate in the market.
Half of these were purchased by China's biggest independent refiner Rongsheng Petrochemical from Vitol and Total at close to $10 a barrel above Dubai quotes for delivery to China, two of the sources said.
Another independent refiner, Shenghong Petrochemical, secured two million barrels of Iraqi oil for September delivery at around $8 a barrel over ICE Brent for delivery to China, another one of the sources said.
Rongsheng and Shenghong did not respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Siyi Liu, Chen Aizhu and Florence Tan in Singapore; additional reporting by Nidhi Verma in New Delhi, Arathy Somasekhar in Houston and Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Jan Harvey)