Iraq, Syria to rehabilitate Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq and Syria agreed Monday to rehabilitate the oil pipeline linking the two countries and to establish two joint committees to deepen bilateral cooperation, according to a joint statement issued after talks between Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and his Syrian counterpart, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, in Damascus.

The two sides examined mechanisms for transporting and transiting energy supplies, centered on the project to rehabilitate the oil transport pipeline running from Iraq to Syria. They also agreed to form a joint committee covering energy, agriculture, water, transport, and border crossings “to advance cooperation and mutual interests.”

Last December, a source told Shafaq News that Iraq and Syria reached a preliminary agreement to revive the Kirkuk–Baniyas oil pipeline, adding that a delegation led by Iraq’s deputy oil minister, including SOMO Director General Ali Nizar, Oil Pipelines Company Director General Ali Abdul Karim, and other senior officials, visited Damascus to discuss mechanisms for restarting the pipeline with officials from Syria’s Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources.

The pipeline, built in 1952, runs roughly 800 kilometers from the Kirkuk oil fields in northern Iraq to the Syrian Mediterranean port of Baniyas, with a capacity of 300,000 barrels per day. The line has been out of operation since 2003, when it was damaged during the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Read more: Kirkuk–Baniyas Pipeline: Iraq’s direct oil lifeline to the Mediterranean