On 25 January, Iraq’s oil ministry said it is conducting studies to examine the feasibility of a new pipeline linking Haditha in western Iraq to Syria’s Banias oil terminal on the Mediterranean. Last year, Baghdad approved the long-planned $4.6bn, 2.25mn b/d Basra-Haditha pipeline that will improve deliveries to domestic refineries and serve as a jumping off point for potential export pipelines to the Mediterranean (MEES, 3 January 2025).
Iraq is overwhelmingly reliant on the Gulf for its crude oil exports, with only modest amounts of oil from Kurdistan exported through a northern pipeline route to Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal. Iraq is also considering extending the pipeline from Haditha to Ceyhan to enable Basrah crude to be exported through the 900,000 b/d capacity route (MEES, 21 June 2024). (CONTINUED - 217 WORDS)