The oil
Oil is the source of the money described throughout this encyclopedia. Oil revenue pays public salaries, and the Central Bank sells oil dollars every day. This page shows what Iraq exported and earned year by year, with the monthly figures in the download, and how much of that money the Central Bank sold on. It also covers the oil that the Kurdistan Region sold separately and the oil lost before it was sold.
From January 2005 to December 2024, Iraq's federal crude exports earned $1,340 billion. This adds up the Ministry of Oil's own monthly figures, which in most years match the official annual total of SOMO, the State Organization for Marketing of Oil.
Over the same twenty years the Central Bank sold $811 billion, which is 61% of the oil money. In 2020 the Central Bank sold more dollars than federal oil exports earned.
The Central Bank's dollar sales follow the oil money, and exceeded it in 2020
Federal crude export revenue and Central Bank dollar sales, in billions of US dollars, from 2005 to 2024
Year by year
| Year | Barrels exported (million) | Oil export revenue | Central Bank sales | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | 506 | $23.5 billion | $9.6 billion | 41% |
| 2006 | 546 | $31.9 billion | $11.2 billion | 35% |
| 2007 | 600 | $41.2 billion | $16 billion | 39% |
| 2008 | 677 | $61.6 billion | $25.9 billion | 42% |
| 2009 | 696 | $41.3 billion | $34 billion | 82% |
| 2010 | 690 | $52.2 billion | $36.2 billion | 69% |
| 2011 | 790 | $83 billion | $39.8 billion | 48% |
| 2012 | 887 | $94.1 billion | $48.6 billion | 52% |
| 2013 | 872 | $87.2 billion | $55.7 billion | 64% |
| 2014 | 918 | $84.1 billion | $54.5 billion | 65% |
| 2015 | 1,097 | $49.1 billion | $44.3 billion | 90% |
| 2016 | 1,208 | $43.6 billion | $33.5 billion | 77% |
| 2017 | 1,208 | $59.6 billion | $42.2 billion | 71% |
| 2018 | 1,279 | $83.9 billion | $47.1 billion | 56% |
| 2019 | 1,287 | $78.5 billion | $51.1 billion | 65% |
| 2020 | 1,096 | $41.8 billion | $44.1 billion | 106% |
| 2021 | 1,102 | $75.7 billion | $37.1 billion | 49% |
| 2022 | 1,209 | $115.6 billion | $46.8 billion | 40% |
| 2023 | 1,232 | $97.6 billion | $56.1 billion | 57% |
| 2024 | 1,234 | $95 billion | $77.7 billion | 82% |
The Kurdistan Region's oil
The Kurdistan Region sold its oil separately from the federal system. From 2018 to 2022 the Kurdistan Regional Government sold about $42.4 billion of oil, according to the Deloitte reviews it commissioned. About $14.5 billion went to the oil companies and about $20.9 billion reached the regional government. The rest was spent on transport and other costs. These are the regional government's own figures as reviewed by Deloitte, not audited federal revenue.
An international arbitration tribunal measured the oil that left through the Turkish port of Ceyhan from May 2014 to September 2018 on the instructions of the regional government rather than those of Iraq's Ministry of Oil. Press reports put the award at about $1.47 billion plus interest. The award itself has not been published. Tier D The case in full.
The oil lost before export
Official bodies directly document about $3.1 billion of oil and oil products lost before sale. Tier A Estimates of the full loss from 2003 to mid-2026 range from $8 billion to $41 billion. They rest on official figures, US government studies, research institutes and press reports. Tier C None of this oil is in the export figures above, so it is a loss in addition to them. How we know.
Months in the data: 272