Al Marsoumi: Iran’s Hormuz fee drains 1/3 of Iraq’s oil revenue

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) — A financial assessment by prominent petroleum economist Dr. Nabil Al-Marsoumi on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, revealed that Iranian authorities have imposed transit fees of up to $20 per barrel on Iraqi crude shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz, siphoning off nearly one-third of the federal treasury’s gross hydrocarbon receipts during August 2026.

Al-Marsoumi’s figures substantiate parliamentary disclosures made a day earlier by Mansour Al-Baiji, Deputy Head of the Reconstruction and Development parliamentary bloc, who warned that direct fee payments to Tehran by Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) expose the sovereign marketer to direct secondary sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

Quantitative Breakdown of August 2026 Oil Revenue Depletion

According to Al-Marsoumi’s balance-sheet audit, maritime transit deductions and foreign operator technical costs reduced Iraq’s net treasury inflow by nearly 44.4%:

• Gross Oil Export Revenue: Total crude export receipts generated during August 2026 stood at approximately $4.5 billion.
• Direct Transit Payments to Iran: Roughly $1.3 billion was deducted and paid directly to Iranian authorities under the $20/barrel transit toll mechanism.
• Intermediate Net Revenue: Receipts dropped to $3.2 billion following the Hormuz passage deduction.
• Upstream Technical Service Contracts (TSCs): After deducting production cost recovery and licensing round dues owed to international oil companies (IOCs), actual net hydrocarbon revenue entering state accounts collapsed to just $2.5 billion.

Monthly Fiscal Flow: Gross vs. Net Realized Oil Receipts (August 2026)

The payment structure has triggered political concern across Baghdad’s executive and legislative corridors:

• SOMO Sanctions Threat: Representative Mansour Al-Baiji sounded the alarm that Washington could place SOMO under Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) penalties for transferring sovereign oil revenue directly to Iranian accounts to guarantee passage through the strait.
• Treasury Outreach: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent initiated targeted warnings to international governments maintaining deep commercial and financial dependencies with Tehran, cautioning that any mechanism facilitating sanctions evasion would trigger enforcement action against host-country state bodies.
• The Unwritten Message to Baghdad: A reported diplomatic warning delivered to Baghdad outlined that U.S. sanctions could soon target official Iraqi institutions, state enterprises, and clearing conduits if Washington determines Baghdad is actively facilitating financial relief for Iran.
• Political Paralysis in the Coalition: The crisis spurred a rapid-fire second meeting of the ruling State Administration Coalition within a single month. Observers noted the coalition’s cautious position: vocally warning against the dangers of U.S. sanctions while downplaying contentious deadlines—such as the September 30 benchmark regarding non-state weapons—in a delicate balancing act between Washington and Tehran.
• Evolution of Hormuz Passage Regimes: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi previously announced on March 25, 2026, that passage through Hormuz would be granted only to allied and friendly nations—including Iraq, China, Russia, India, and Pakistan—following earlier frameworks reported by Bloomberg assessing blanket passage levies approaching $2 million per vessel.

With Iraq’s domestic payroll and sovereign entitlements averaging over 7.4 trillion IQD (approx. $5.65 billion) per month, a net oil revenue inflow of only $2.5 billion leaves a monthly sovereign fiscal gap exceeding $3 billion.

If SOMO continues disbursing transit fees to Tehran, Baghdad risks not only deepening an acute domestic liquidity crisis, but also triggering immediate secondary sanctions on its banking and crude marketing apparatus from the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury.