Syria-Iraq oil pipeline may take three years to restore

Syria and Iraq are finalising negotiations on a contract to restore the Haditha-Banias oil pipeline, a Syrian official said Tuesday, with the work expected to take up to three years.

Syrian Petroleum Company chief executive Youssef Qablawi said at the Rmeilan oil field in northeast Syria that talks had begun to finalise the contract. He said he hoped they would be completed within three months, followed by engineering studies, procurement and restoration work taking “three years at most”.

Damascus signed a memorandum of understanding with Baghdad last month to revive the pipeline, which would transport oil from Iraq to Syria's coast and connect Iraqi production to export markets in the Mediterranean and beyond.

A consortium of three companies, including Chevron, is set to carry out the project. The US State Department welcomed the plan last month, calling it strategically significant for both countries and the region.

Syrian state news agency SANA said the pipeline dates to 1952 and went out of service in 2003 after being damaged during the US invasion of Iraq.

Qablawi described the pipeline as vital for Syria, put its capacity at between 1.5 million and 2 million barrels per day and said the project would generate significant revenues.

The prospect of a Mediterranean export route through Syria has gained urgency with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz during the Middle East war. Baghdad said in April that it had begun shipping crude through Syria by truck to avoid the strait.

Syria's new authorities, who ousted Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, are seeking to revive the country's economy and infrastructure after more than a decade of war. Qablawi said Syria's oil production is currently between 100,000 and 110,000 barrels per day and is projected to reach 250,000 by the end of next year.