Syria Begins Gasoline Shipments to Iraq Through Baniyas Amid Hormuz Closure
The first cargo totaled about 32,800 metric tons, with 77 tanker trucks heading toward Iraq under a transit contract with UCC Holding.
Syria has begun moving imported gasoline from Baniyas to Iraq by road, adding an overland supply route amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The first shipment totaled about 32,800 metric tons. It arrived aboard the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Avanti, was transferred into storage at Baniyas and then loaded onto road tankers.
Seventy-seven tanker trucks have departed for the Iraqi border, with loading continuing and additional cargoes expected, Tareq Shallash, head of the Refining Directorate at the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company, said.
The gasoline was imported and does not come from supplies reserved for domestic consumption, Shallash said. The Syrian Petroleum Company is operating under a transit contract with Qatar-based UCC Holding, which is supplying the fuel and managing transportation.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry confirmed the arrangement. “A contract was signed between SOMO and the Qatari company to supply Iraq with improved gasoline through the port of Baniyas by road tankers, and the supplies have in fact been delivered on a regular basis,” spokesperson Saleem al-Rikabi said.
The agreement currently covers gasoline. Shallash said future deals could expand the route to crude oil, other petroleum products and additional goods.
Iraq has pledged to keep building overland alternatives through Syria even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens. Iraqi fuel oil transported through Baniyas reached the United States for the first time in July.
UCC Holding is also part of a consortium with Chevron and TI Capital examining the revival of the Kirkuk-Baniyas crude pipeline. Iraq and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on the project in Washington in July. Building the pipeline could take four years and cost at least $15 billion because it would require new infrastructure.
