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Iraq plans truck crude exports via Syria's Baniyas port to bypass Hormuz

Syrian Petroleum's chief executive told Bloomberg that Iraqi crude could start moving by truck to Syria's Baniyas port from mid-October. The route would give Iraq an outlet that avoids the Strait of Hormuz.

2 outlets · 0L · 2C · 0R First reported Account updated
Image: Anadolu Agency
Image: The National

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The story, neutrally told

Centre · 2Iraq is preparing to export crude oil by truck through Syria to the Mediterranean, as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, according to Bloomberg News. Centre · 2Yousef Qiblawy, chief executive of the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company, told Bloomberg that Baghdad had asked for help exporting crude alongside existing fuel oil shipments and that an agreement between the governments was "almost done". Centre · 2Qiblawy said the first crude convoys could arrive by mid-October, and that his company planned to provide storage tanks at Baniyas before the oil is loaded onto vessels for export.

Centre · 1The route would expand an existing overland corridor. Qiblawy said about 1,000 trucks carry fuel oil daily, each with 220 barrels, and he expected a similar or larger fleet for crude; at those figures that is 220,000 barrels a day. Centre · 2A Syrian Petroleum deputy chief executive, Ahmed Qubbaji, told state news agency SANA on 27 September that 1,000 to 1,200 trucks crossed Syria daily. Since April Syria has been the main route for Iraqi fuel oil exports, with at least 2.1 million tonnes moved by lorry to Baniyas, according to The National. Centre · 2Traffic also runs the other way: Syria began moving imported gasoline from Baniyas to Iraq in late September under a renewable three-month agreement, with plans to reach 200 trucks daily. An Iraqi Oil Ministry official told The National the first petrol cargo, of 32,000 tonnes, was being unloaded at the Baniyas refinery.

Centre · 1The two countries are also pursuing rehabilitation of the Haditha-Baniyas pipeline. SANA reported in July that Syria signed agreements with Iraq and an international consortium, targeting 2 million barrels a day; Anadolu notes this is planned capacity, not an operating route. Centre · 1The background is the Iran war, which began in February. The National says Iraq depends on oil for at least 90 per cent of its revenue and exported about 3.3 million barrels a day before the war, mostly through Hormuz from Basra, and that the US is pushing for closer Iraq-Syria ties. Centre · 1On 4 October, The National reported that Iraq's state-owned Iraqi Oil Tankers Company had carried two million barrels of its own crude beyond Hormuz for the first time in decades. Director general Ali Qais said it was in talks to buy specialised crude tankers.

Every sentence links to the reporting it rests on. The pill in front of each says where its sources sit: Left, Centre or Right when one side supplies at least half of them, Mixed when they are evenly split. The number is how many outlets it cites.

Left0 outlets

No left outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.

Centre2 outlets

Framing
Both outlets, Anadolu Agency and The National, relay Bloomberg's report as a logistics and energy-security story, centred on Syrian Petroleum's CEO and the mid-October start.
Emphasis
Anadolu stresses truck volumes and that the pipeline is only planned capacity; The National stresses Iraq's revenue dependence, the Iran war and Hormuz disruption.
Leaves out or plays down
Neither carries an Iraqi government statement on the plan; the timeline rests on the Syrian executive's words as relayed by Bloomberg.
For example
“That remains a planned capacity rather than an operating export route.” — Anadolu Agency
“Opec's second-largest producer depends on oil for at least 90 per cent of its revenue.” — The National

Right0 outlets

No right outlet in our sources has covered this story yet.