The United States has thrown its weight behind an Iraqi-Syrian plan to resurrect the long-mothballed Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline, a project that would create a 2 million barrel-per-day export corridor to the Mediterranean. The commitment, announced by the State Department on 17 July, came as Baghdad and Washington unveiled a $60 billion package of commercial agreements, with the pipeline rehabilitation designated a priority infrastructure project. For Iraq, which relies on crude exports for 90 per cent of state revenues, the initiative offers a direct route to market that circumvents the Strait of Hormuz, where months of US-Iranian military exchanges have severely disrupted tanker traffic and sent global energy prices soaring.

The pipeline, originally commissioned in 1952 and rendered inoperable by US airstrikes during the 2003 invasion, will require far more than patchwork repairs. The announced capacity of 2 million bpd dwarfs the original line’s 300,000 bpd throughput, meaning large sections will have to be built anew. A US-led consortium comprising Chevron, Capital TI and Qatar’s UCC Holding has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Syrian Petroleum Company to conduct technical and financial studies. Separately, Syria’s state oil firm and Iraq’s Basra Oil Company agreed to restore the Haditha-Baniyas segment, which would channel Iraqi crude to Syrian Mediterranean terminals.

Viewed from Washington, the pipeline is a strategic instrument to reduce Iran’s ability to weaponise the Hormuz chokepoint and to anchor Western commercial interests in the Iraqi and Syrian energy sectors. The broader $48- to $60-billion package, signed during Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s first foreign trip since taking office in April, includes production-expansion deals with Chevron and partnerships with ExxonMobil, Halliburton and Starlink. In Damascus, the project is framed as a step toward reclaiming a role as a regional energy transit hub, while Baghdad sees it as an economic imperative after the Hormuz blockade slashed export volumes. Lebanon, despite its Mediterranean coastline, is not part of the announced framework.

The agreements remain political declarations of intent, not binding construction contracts. No timetable has been set, and the feasibility studies will determine the final route, cost and technical specifications. The corridor’s viability will depend on security conditions along the 800-kilometre path through western Iraq and eastern Syria, as well as on Baghdad and Damascus concluding the necessary legal, commercial and revenue-sharing accords. The next concrete milestone will be the delivery of the consortium’s technical and financial study, which will clarify whether the ambitious capacity target can be met and at what price.