ڕاپۆرت
Iraq’s plans to export oil through a pipeline crossing Syria, as part of efforts to avoid future disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, are expected to require four years of work and at least $15 billion, Reuters reported, citing two informed sources.
بڵاوکراوەتەوە لە : 18 ئاب 2026
قەبارەی دەقەکان
قەبارەی دەقەکان
U.S. officials and executives in the oil sector are advocating for the project, which has received preliminary support for a technical and feasibility study by a consortium that includes Chevron. The project is part of a strategy to reduce the sector’s dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, which has been closed due to the Iran war.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week: “Within the next two years, the Strait of Hormuz will lose its significance and become just another waterway.”
Bessent explained that although nearly 20% of global oil and liquefied natural gas exports passed through the Strait of Hormuz before the war, “more than 50% or 70%” of those exports are now being transported through underground pipelines instead.
However, two sources directly involved in the project told Reuters that plans for the Iraq-Syria pipeline could take twice as long because of the need for new infrastructure and potentially other obstacles.
The sources requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
New Infrastructure
Iraq is among the countries that have suffered the greatest impact from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Data from Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) show that before the war, Iraq exported nearly 3.6 million barrels of oil per day, most of it through Gulf ports near Basra. However, exports through the Strait of Hormuz fell to just 35.5 million barrels in July.
Iraq currently has an oil pipeline linking the Kirkuk region in northern Iraq to Syria’s Baniyas port on the Mediterranean Sea. However, the pipeline suffered significant damage during the wars in Iraq and Syria and has not been systematically used since the 1980s.
The sources said the plan requires building entirely new infrastructure rather than renovating the existing pipeline, with costs of at least $15 billion.
One source said part of the new pipeline would largely follow the Kirkuk-Baniyas route. However, the undamaged sections of the existing pipeline do not meet newly approved specifications and therefore cannot be used.
The second source said the project would involve building an entirely new crude-oil pipeline system connecting Iraq’s southern and northern oil fields to a collection hub in Haditha, western Iraq, before extending to Baniyas.
The United States has welcomed the “rehabilitation and reconstruction” of the pipeline and said its initial capacity would be 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.
That would represent a significant increase compared with the old pipeline’s capacity of approximately 300,000 barrels per day—about one-tenth of the volume of oil Iraq exported through the Strait of Hormuz before the Iran war.
With a capacity of around 250,000 barrels per day, Iraq has also resumed exporting oil from the Kirkuk fields through a pipeline to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.
The sources said work on the Iraq-Syria pipeline would take around four years. However, one source said the timeline may also need to account for removing old infrastructure and obtaining new land-use rights from Syria’s new government.
A New Gateway Requiring Further Study
Both Syria and Iraq have signed separate memorandums of understanding with a consortium comprising Chevron, TI Capital and Qatar’s UCC Holding to conduct technical and financial studies in preparation for the project.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry and Syria’s state-owned oil company did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment on the project or the sources’ estimates regarding its timeline and cost.
TI Capital and UCC Holding declined to comment. Chevron referred Reuters to an earlier statement regarding the preliminary agreement and said it would not comment on specific commercial details.
During a press conference last month, a Chevron executive said the project could provide “a new gateway to markets” through the Mediterranean Sea.
He noted that any pipeline would also need to be connected to the West Qurna 2 and Nasiriyah oil fields in southern Iraq, where Chevron is negotiating to enter operations.
The executive said Chevron still needs to complete technical studies to determine whether the existing Iraq-Syria pipeline requires rehabilitation, expansion or complete reconstruction.
He clarified that the company has not yet provided an estimate of the project’s future export capacity, adding that pipelines of this type generally do not operate at full capacity from the first day.
