Iraq asks Syria to help export oil via its territory, bypassing Strait of Hormuz

Iraq has directly asked Syria to help with oil exports, Bloomberg reported wednesday, citing sources.

Syria is preparing to provide a secure route for Iraqi crude oil exports to avoid the Strait of Hormuz, “with a stream of trucks being lined up to haul oil overland to a port on the Mediterranean Sea,” the report said.

The Iraqi government has asked Syria to help export crude oil as well as fuel, Syrian Petroleum Company CEO Yousef Qablawi told Bloomberg in an interview.

 “I expect the export of Iraqi crude via Syria by trucks to start as soon as possible as the deal between both governments is almost done,” Qiblawy said.

“So, hopefully, by mid-October the first chain of trucks with crude will come to Syria,” he added.

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Iraq already uses a fleet of trucks to transport some fuel to Syria’s Mediterranean port of Baniyas, where the shipments are transferred to tankers for onward export.

Qablawi said about 1,000 trucks transport fuel each day, with each load carrying up to about 220 barrels. He expects the number of trucks used to transport crude oil to be similar or higher, given the large volume of Iraqi crude.

The Syrian Petroleum Company plans to provide storage tanks for Iraqi crude at Baniyas port, allowing the shipments transported by road to be received and prepared for export.

However, the quantities that can be transported by truck through Syria will remain limited compared with Iraq’s total crude exports, which averaged about 2.7 million barrels per day last month, according to Iraqi government data.

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