TL;DR
Iraq declared force majeure on all foreign-operated oilfields on March 20, formalizing what the Hormuz blockade already made inevitable — the world's second-largest OPEC producer cannot ship its oil.
MSM Perspective
Reuters broke the story citing oil ministry sources; Shafaq News and Iraqi News detailed the contractual implications for BP, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies.
X Perspective
Energy Twitter is calling it the most consequential force majeure since Kuwait 1990, with 3.3 million barrels per day now legally and physically stranded.
Iraq's oil ministry declared force majeure on all oilfields developed by foreign companies on March 20, according to ministry sources cited by Reuters. [1] The declaration covers every major international operator in the country — BP, ExxonMobil, TotalEnergies, and others — and suspends contractual obligations including production targets, export commitments, and payments. [2]
The legal trigger is the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq exports roughly 3.3 million barrels per day through the Persian Gulf, and with commercial shipping through the strait effectively halted, that oil has nowhere to go. [3] Storage capacity at Basra's export terminals is full. Iraqi News reported that the force majeure permits Baghdad to pause all contractual commitments without cancelling agreements or incurring penalties. [4] Kuwait had already declared its own force majeure on March 7 and begun cutting output. [5]
For the global oil market, Iraq's declaration removes another 3.3 million barrels per day from the supply picture — not because the oil is gone, but because the infrastructure to move it is blocked by a war Iraq did not start.
-- YOSEF STERN, Jerusalem
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