Iraq and Syria have signed a cooperation agreement to reconstruct a pipeline running from Iraqi oil fields to Syria’s Mediterranean coast, as part of a US-brokered deal to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
According to the Middle East Eye, the US was brokering efforts to rehabilitate the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline, with US ambassador to Turkey and Syria envoy Tom Barrack taking the lead.The agreement was signed during the US-Iraq Business Council meeting in Washington, DC, by Bassem Abdul Karim Nasr, head of the Basra Oil Company, on behalf of Iraq; and Youssef Qablawi, CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company, on behalf of Syria. US Energy Secretary Chris Wright oversaw the signing.
The US State Department described the pipeline’s renewal as a ‘priority infrastructure project of bilateral and regional strategic significance’. “The United States welcomes the engagement of a US-led international consortium to execute the technical and financial aspects of this project,” the department said in a statement.
The project is notable because the US is trying to deepen ties between Baghdad and Damascus to reduce Iran’s influence in the region and its control over global energy flows in the Gulf.
The pipeline is being rehabilitated by a consortium comprising US energy company Chevron, Los Angeles-based TI Capital, and Syrian-Qatari billionaire al-Khayyat brothers, who have secured billions of dollars in deals in Syria.