BAGHDAD (Dispatches) -- Iraq has restored its oil exports to near pre-war levels by selling crude at steep discounts, including to an oil trading firm known for supplying oil to Israel and with links to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Discounts continue and vary per the buying company. The range is from 10 to 20 percent. The discount reportedly compensates for the security risks in the Strait of Hormuz. Transport and insurance companies are given the discount,” stated Uday Awad, head of the federal parliamentary finance committee, in an interview with Rudaw.
Hormuz was effectively closed by Iran for several months after the U.S. and Israel launched an unprovoked war on the Islamic Republic in February. 
In response, Iraq increased exports through its pipeline to Turkey and began shipping oil by tanker truck overland to Syria, but these measures could not compensate for the loss of exports through Hormuz.
However, Iraq received permission from Iran for commercial tankers to transit Hormuz carrying its crude starting in August.
Baghdad is now exporting around 3 million barrels a day, just below the 3.4 million the state oil company exported each day before the war on Iran began.
As a result, the UAE state oil firm ADNOC and U.S.-based oil trading firm Vitol have become the largest purchasers of Iraqi crude, Reuters reported, citing sources.
Vitol has bought at least 25 million barrels of steeply discounted Iraqi crude in September, allowing the firm to benefit from the war.
The UAE’s ADNOC purchased 40 million barrels of discounted Iraqi crude in September after purchasing about 32 million barrels in August.
Iraq exported an average of 2.35 million barrels per day (bpd) of crude from its southern ports last month, Reuters noted, citing Kpler data. 
As an oil trading firm, Vitol purchases crude from national oil companies, including in Venezuela and West Asia. It then charters tankers and arranges financing and insurance before selling the cargo to a refinery in another country.
In September 2026, Reuters reported that Vitol and another firm, Trafigura, had become key exporters of Venezuelan crude and together were handling nearly 600,000 barrels per day, more than half of Venezuelan crude shipments.
In January 2026, shortly after the U.S. removed Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro and seized control of his country’s oil, Vitol senior oil trader John Addison participated in a White House meeting with Trump.
The Trump administration then selected Vitol and Trafigura to handle Venezuelan crude, with Vitol receiving one of the first transactions, reportedly worth about $250 million. 
Vitol is also a major crude supplier to Israel. 
The oil delivered by Vitol and Heritage Petroleum goes to Israeli refineries to produce fuels that, among other things, are used by the military, thereby helping Israel in its ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, OCI stated.