Syria says sending imported petrol to Iraq

DAMASCUS: Syria said on Sunday that it had begun delivering imported petrol to Iraq this week, months after Baghdad began exporting its oil via Syria when the Middle East war disrupted the Strait of Hormuz. 'The Syrian Petroleum Company has begun transporting petrol imported for Iraq through the Banias oil terminal' on Syria's Mediterranean coast, state news agency SANA reported. The move is part of 'a renewable three-month agreement to secure energy supplies amid disruptions to maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz,' it added. The report cited Syrian Petroleum Company official Ahmed Qubbaji as saying that operations began on Thursday with a first batch of 57 tankers, with work underway to increase the number of trucks crossing the Al-Tanf land border to Iraq to 200 per day. The Qatari firm UCC was responsible for purchasing the petrol 'from various global sources,' with Syria then transporting it for a fee, Qubbaji said according to the report. The operations support 'Syria's role as a corridor for importing, exporting and transporting materials and energy between regional countries,' he said. The closure of Hormuz has hit Iraqi oil exports hard, and in April Baghdad said it had begun shipping crude through Syria by truck to circumvent the strait, though the amounts are far below what used to travel by sea. Qubbaji said that up to 1,200 Iraqi oil tankers transited Syria daily. Syria's new authorities, who ousted longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December 2024, have been seeking to reboot the country's economy and rebuild its infrastructure after more than a decade of war. Syria and Iraq are also finalizing negotiations on a contract to restore a key oil pipeline between the countries, Syrian officials have said.