As the closure of the Strait of Hormuz drags on due to the Iran war, Syria's ports are drawing attention as a new bypass route for oil shipments. Citing its geographic advantage on the Mediterranean, Syria is promoting itself as a stable overland oil corridor and an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz.
On the 2nd, the Washington Post (WP) reported, "Syria is poised to seize on the lifting of international sanctions and the ongoing war in the Persian Gulf," adding, "Syria is touting its strong access to Europe via the port of Baniyas on the Mediterranean, and governments from several countries and energy suppliers are already investing in related projects."
According to WP, truck shipments have been running since April between refineries in southern Iraq and Syria's Baniyas port. With the Strait of Hormuz effectively sealed by the Iran war, Iraqi oil exporters began testing routes that bypass the strait. Even now, about 5,000 heavy trucks carrying oil produced in the Persian Gulf are crossing the desert day and night toward the Mediterranean.
Earlier, in July, Bloomberg also reported, "In just a few months, Syria has transformed into a country accounting for more than a quarter of the Middle East's total fuel oil exports," and "Syria is increasingly being recognized as a gateway for energy shipments from Iraq, and plans are underway to build a crude oil pipeline aimed in particular at reducing reliance on major maritime corridors where Iran exerts influence."
Since former President Bashar al-Assad was ousted, Syria has been pursuing ways to derive economic benefits through an overland route that bypasses the Strait of Hormuz. The plan is to replace the truck-dependent transport system with a large-scale pipeline and make Syria a key oil export corridor in the Middle East.
The state-owned Syrian Oil Company, which will operate the pipeline, said a consortium that includes U.S. oil company Chevron, France's TotalEnergies, and Syrian and Qatari investors is expected to sign a final contract this month. With Qatar also showing interest in the project, discussions are reportedly underway to extend the pipeline to Qatar.
The United States is also actively supporting oil exports through Syria. In July, the U.S. administration of Donald Trump said it would support a new Chevron-led pipeline capable of transporting up to 2 million barrels of crude per day from Basra in southern Iraq to Baniyas in Syria. The pipeline is expected to follow a route similar to the one fuel-laden trucks currently take across the desert.
Construction of the 1,000-mile (about 1,600 kilometers) pipeline, which will cost about $5.7 billion, is expected to take at least two and a half years. Even after completion, most observers think it will be difficult to completely replace maritime transport through the Strait of Hormuz. However, in the long term, it could help oil exporters diversify their shipping routes, WP said.
When the White House unveiled the pipeline project with senior Syrian and Iraqi officials, Tom Barrack, Trump's special envoy for Syria, said in a statement that the project would help put the Strait of Hormuz "on the back burner."
Still, there are risks to the bypass route through Syria. Although Syria has grown more stable than before since the Assad regime fell, President Ahmad al-Shara has yet to fully secure control over the entire territory. Syria continues to see sporadic attacks by Islamic State (IS) operatives, and the pipeline must also pass through western Iraq, where militias backed by Iran wield influence.
Gabriel Mitchell, an energy expert and visiting fellow at the German Marshall Fund, a U.S. think tank, noted, "Ensuring the physical security of all types of pipeline infrastructure will be the biggest challenge." Pipelines could be vulnerable to attacks by armed groups. He also emphasized that the project is a long-term investment looking ahead 30 years.
Ahmad Qubaji, vice president of the Syrian Oil Company, said the consortium is discussing ways to protect the pipeline using advanced surveillance technologies, including drones, and that the United States will also provide security support. "Every day 5,000 trucks come here from Iraq, but there has not been a single security incident so far," he said.