Iraq ships first fuel oil cargo from Syria’s Baniyas port to European markets

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil announced Thursday the loading of the first shipment of Iraqi fuel oil from Syria’s Baniyas refinery onto a Mediterranean vessel bound for European consumers and refineries, opening a new export route that Baghdad says it intends to develop beyond the current crisis.

SOMO Director General Nizar al-Shatri said the step is “very important to open a new marketing route that can be utilized in the future, as well as during the current crisis,” adding that efforts are ongoing “to maximize Iraqi exports and increase them, despite all logistical, technical and security challenges.”

The Syrian Petroleum Company said it began loading the shipment at Baniyas port in Tartus governorate, describing Syria as “a strategic corridor in regional energy movement” with the infrastructure and capacity to support regional supply continuity.

The Baniyas route is one of several alternatives Iraq has pursued since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed during regional conflict in late February, causing exports to collapse from more than 99 million barrels in February to just 18.6 million barrels in March. Iraq also resumed flows through the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in the north, reopened the al-Waleed border crossing with Syria and began trucking crude overland as emergency measures to sustain some level of export revenue. The Oil Ministry said it is also in talks to revive the Saudi pipeline, idle since 1991, and has reached understandings with both American and Iranian sides to avoid further disruption to Hormuz transit. Oil exports account for more than 90 percent of Iraq’s state income.