Iraq-Syria Pipeline Bypassing Hormuz Will Take Years, Billions to Rebuild
An Iraqi worker operates valves at the Nahran Omar oil refinery near the city of Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, Iraq
Iraq is planning a massive new crude pipeline linking its southern and northern fields to Syria’s Mediterranean port of Banias — a project designed to render the Strait of Hormuz «irrelevant» for its oil exports, according to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.The ambitious plan comes as the Iran war has largely shut the strategic waterway, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas once flowed. Bessent claimed last week that «more than 50% or 70%» of those exports would instead be routed via underground pipelines.In reality, the project will cost at least $15 billion and take four years to build, Reuters reported, citing two sources directly involved in the project.Initial capacity: 2 million barrels per day (up from the old pipeline’s 300,000 bpd capacity)The old pipeline: The existing Kirkuk-Banias pipeline has been out of regular use since the 1980s and is beyond repairIraq’s current exports: 3.6 million bpd before the war — now shipping just 35.5 million barrels total via Hormuz in JulyThe new pipeline: Will link Iraq’s southern and northern fields to a central hub in Haditha, western Iraq, then onwards to BaniasThe new project will require entirely new infrastructure — not a rehabilitation of the old pipeline. Intact sections of the existing Kirkuk-Banias route are not compatible with newly developed specifications and would be unusable, one source said.
