Shafaq News..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.