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Iraq is preparing to move crude oil by truck through Syria to the Mediterranean, seeking an alternative export route as risks to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz threaten a key source of government revenue, Bloomberg reported.
Yousef Qiblawy, chief executive of the “Syrian Petroleum Company”, told Bloomberg that Baghdad had requested help exporting crude alongside existing fuel oil shipments. He said an agreement between the governments was nearing completion.
The first crude convoys could arrive by mid-October, Qiblawy said. The company plans to provide storage tanks at Baniyas, where the oil would be held before being loaded onto vessels for onward export.
The proposed route would extend an existing overland corridor used to transport Iraqi fuel oil to Syria’s Mediterranean coast. About 1,000 trucks currently carry fuel oil each day, with each truck transporting 220 barrels, Qiblawy said. He expects a similar or larger fleet to be used for crude.
At that rate, 1,000 trucks would move 220,000 barrels a day, illustrating the potential scale of the route as well as the logistical demands of transporting oil by road.
Ahmed Qubbaji, the petroleum company’s deputy chief executive for transportation and storage, separately told Syria’s state news agency SANA on Sept. 27 that between 1,000 and 1,200 trucks crossed Syrian territory daily.
Energy supplies also travel in the opposite direction. Syria began transporting imported gasoline from Baniyas to Iraq in late September under a renewable three-month agreement, with plans to raise traffic to 200 trucks a day.
Iraq and Syria are also pursuing a larger export route through the rehabilitation of the Haditha-Baniyas pipeline, historically linked to the Kirkuk-Baniyas route. SANA reported in July that Syria had signed agreements with Iraq and an international consortium to advance the project, which is planned to have a capacity of 2 million barrels a day. The pipeline is not currently an operating export route.
