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Iraq has signed a series of agreements with Western energy companies, including plans to revive a key oil export pipeline through Syria, as Baghdad seeks to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Hormuz.
The preliminary agreements were signed on Friday during a US-Iraq Business Summit at the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, amid growing concerns over disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz following the US-Israel conflict with Iran.
As part of the initiative, Iraq and Syria signed a cooperation agreement to rehabilitate the long-idled Iraq-Syria crude oil pipeline linking the oil-rich Kirkuk region in northern Iraq to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas in Syria.
According to Iraq’s state news agency, US energy giant Chevron will undertake the project.
The US State Department welcomed the agreement, saying a US-led international consortium would oversee the technical and financial implementation of the pipeline rehabilitation.
Once restored, the pipeline is expected to have an initial transport capacity of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day, creating what the State Department described as “a critical energy corridor” connecting Iraqi oil production with Mediterranean export markets.
US Ambassador to Turkiye Tom Barrack said the new pipeline agreements would create an energy network that would make dependence on the Strait of Hormuz “an afterthought.”
Besides the Syria pipeline project, Chevron also signed two additional agreements with Iraq aimed at increasing the country’s oil production, according to Jake Spiering, the company’s president of corporate business development.
