Four oil routes could cut Iraq’s Hormuz reliance

Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq should develop four oil-pipeline corridors to reduce its dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, the Eco Iraq Observatory said on Sunday, proposing alternative outlets through Jordan, Syria, Oman, and Turkiye.

Before the regional war, roughly 95% of Iraqi crude exports passed through Hormuz. Shipments have since partially recovered, with Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair Al-Abadi saying August exports averaged about two million barrels per day (bpd), still below pre-war levels.

Eco Iraq proposed Basra–Haditha–Al-Aqaba to reach Jordan’s Red Sea coast and Haditha–Baniyas to access the Mediterranean through Syria. Iraq is already advancing the Basra–Haditha section, designed to carry about 2.25 million bpd, while Al-Abadi on August 29 ordered officials to accelerate preparations for a network extending through Haditha to Fishkhabur and Baniyas.

Baghdad and Damascus also signed a US-sponsored memorandum of understanding on July 17 to study rehabilitation of the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline.

The observatory’s third proposal would carry crude from Basra through Saudi Arabia and Oman to the Arabian Sea. Iraq and Oman have separately discussed a Basra-Oman pipeline and storage facilities at Duqm port, although Baghdad has announced no Saudi transit project. A fourth route would connect Haditha with Kirkuk and Turkiye’s Ceyhan port. Iraq’s northern pipeline was exporting about 130,000 bpd in mid-August under a one-year agreement with Turkiye that provides for capacity of around 750,000 bpd.

Haditha in western Al-Anbar could become a hub linking southern production with export routes through Jordan, Syria, and Turkiye, reducing the risks of relying on a single outlet without replacing Iraq’s Gulf terminals, Eco Iraq explained.