Iraq's crude oil shipments rose by 15 per cent in October — an increase of about 380,000 barrels a day — to their highest level since the military conflict in the region began, IraqiNews reported on Sunday.

The recovery was driven by Baghdad's push to move more southern crude through the northern export network. Two energy officials told Reuters that total exports averaged about 3.5 million barrels a day in October, with shipments through Türkiye's Ceyhan port at about 400,000 barrels a day, up from 2.65 million barrels a day in September, including 250,000 barrels a day through Ceyhan.

Estimates of the exact total differ — Iraq Business News put October exports at 3.35 million barrels a day, up 9.5 per cent on September — but all point in the same direction: a sharp rebound from the war's early weeks, when output from Iraq's southern fields fell by about 70 per cent, from 4.3 million to about 1.3 million barrels a day.

Under a government initiative launched in September, crude from the southern fields is trucked north to Kirkuk and then pumped through the Iraq–Türkiye pipeline to Ceyhan, bypassing the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq and Türkiye signed a one-year deal on 1 August to move at least 750,000 barrels a day along that route.

Oil Minister Bassem Mohammed Khudair said last month that exports had nearly returned to pre-war levels, at more than 3.4 million barrels a day in October. Independent vessel-tracking data has put some route figures lower than the official and industry claims, so the precise totals remain estimates — but the recovery in Iraqi exports is now visible across several independent measures.