ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq is accelerating a multi-billion dollar oil pipeline project with a capacity of 2.5 million barrels per day (bpd) and a stretching from the southernmost province of Basra to the western province of Anbar near the Syrian border, the federal oil ministry said on Friday.
The move comes as Baghdad continues to ramp up efforts to find alternative export routes after its oil shipments plunged by 80 percent due to disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz.
The 700-kilometer pipeline will run from Basra - home to some 66 percent of Iraq’s oil reserves - to the town of Haditha in Anbar, oil ministry Spokesperson Abdulsahib al-Hasnawi told the state-run Iraqi News Agency (INA).
The Basra-Hadith pipeline will be capable of transporting “around 2.5 million oil barrels per day and enable exports to three ports: Baniyas in Syria, Ceyhan in Turkey [on the Mediterranean] and Aqaba in Jordan [on the Red Sea],” Hasnawi added.
The oil ministry official further noted that “$1.5 billion has been earmarked for the project,” which he described as “a priority” for his ministry, adding that “its implementation has already begun.” Hasnawi further anticipated that the next Iraqi government would finalize the project’s budget, which stands at around $5 billion in total, according to a Sunday statement by the Iraqi prime minister's office.
The launch of the Basra-Haditha pipeline project comes as Baghdad has in recent months stepped up efforts to secure alternative export routes, in order to ease the impact of disruptions to shipping caused by the Iran war.
The United States and Israel in late February launched a large-scale aerial campaign against Iran, striking more than 17,000 sites across the country over six weeks of hostilities.
In response, Iran carried out thousands of drone and missile strikes across the Middle East, targeting alleged US assets - particularly in Gulf Arab states - as well as launching retaliatory attacks against Israel.
The warring sides later agreed to a Pakistan-mediated ceasefire on April 8, halting fighting to allow space for talks. While the first round of discussions concluded without a final agreement on April 11, a second round has yet to take place, as the war has yet to fully conclude.
In parallel with the talks, the US and Iran have engaged in reciprocal maritime restrictions.
Washington has, since April 13, enforced a naval blockade on Iranian ports, with the US Central Command (CENTCOM) reporting on Thursday that it had redirected a total of 44 commercial vessels attempting to violate the embargo.
Meanwhile, Tehran has tightened controls on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz which handles over 25 percent of global seaborne oil trade and around 20 percent of global liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments.
For Iraq, prior to the six-week war, production stood at around 4.5 million barrels per day, with roughly 3.5 million barrels exported daily.
Nearly 90 percent of those exports passed through the Strait of Hormuz.
However, exports fell to 18.6 million barrels in March, generating about $1.96 billion in revenue, compared with more than 99 million barrels and $6.81 billion in February, according to official figures from the oil ministry.
Accordingly, Baghdad began shipments via Syria in late March, with around 700 tankers transporting roughly 20,000 to 30,000 barrels per day to Baniyas via the al-Waleed–al-Tanf border crossing. At the same time, Iraq has been using a land route through Jordan, transporting approximately 30,000 barrels per day by truck to the port of Aqaba.
However, the most prominent alternative has been the section of the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) controlled by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which resumed operations in mid-March under an agreement with Erbil and is currently pumping roughly 250,000 to 330,000 barrels per day to the port of Ceyhan.
Of note, Hasnawi on Friday highlighted another section of the ITP, the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline, which he said “is considered very important, with a production capacity exceeding one million barrels per day.”
He added that while “this pipeline suffered significant damage” in previous years, the oil ministry “has managed to rehabilitate it, and we are now in the final stages of inspection, in preparation for resuming oil exports soon at a capacity of up to 600,000 barrels per day.”