Iraqi crude oil exports increased in April to the highest level in more than two decades, an Iraqi official television reported on Tuesday.

Iraq exported a total of 75.25 million barrels over the month, bringing in 8.80 billion U.S. dollars in revenues, with an average selling price of 116.94 dollars per barrel, the state-run television of Iraqia quoted data obtained from the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) as saying.

The average of crude oil exports for the month was about 2.51 million barrels per day (bpd), which is higher than the daily rate of March with about 2.32 million bpd, the data showed.

During last month, Iraq exported 63.45 million barrels of crude oil through the southern port of Basra, and 11.79 million barrels were exported via Turkey's port of Ceyhan of the Mediterranean Sea, the channel said.

The recent increase in oil exports is attributed to the new floating oil terminal in the Gulf in south of the country, the channel quoted Falah al-Ameri, the head of SOMO, as saying.

In February, Iraq started building its first single-point mooring (SPM) with export capacity of 850,000 to 900,000 bpd in an attempt to increase Iraq's oil exports through the oil-hub of Basra in southern the country.

Iraq is planning to build five floating terminals with similar oil export capacity in the coming years, as the country intended to increase its oil export capacity from the southern port of Basra to more than 5 million bpd in the coming years from the current capacity of roughly 2 million barrels a day.

The country depends on oil revenues for nearly 95 percent of its budget.

In 2010 Iraq announced its proven oil reserves had increased to 143.1 billion barrels rising from the previous estimation of 115 billion barrels.