An Iraqi government plan to reconstruct an oil pipeline through Syria is projected to cost $15 billion and take four years to complete, according to a report by Reuters citing two sources with knowledge of the project. The proposed infrastructure aims to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, a critical maritime passage for energy exports that is currently experiencing disruptions amid conflict involving Iran, the United States, and Israel.
The project involves rehabilitating a pipeline that formerly linked the Kirkuk region in northern Iraq to the Mediterranean port of Banias in Syria. The original pipeline has not been in regular use since the 1980s due to damage sustained during previous wars. The new proposal requires the construction of an integrated crude oil system connecting Iraq’s southern and northern fields to a central hub in Haditha before extending to the Syrian coast.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated last week that the goal of the pipeline strategy is to make the Strait of Hormuz "irrelevant" within the next two years. Bessent projected that 50 to 70 percent of oil exports that typically navigate the strait would eventually move through underground pipelines. However, the sources cited by Reuters indicated the timeline for the Iraq-Syria route would be twice as long as the Treasury Secretary’s estimate due to infrastructure needs and the requirement for land-use approval from Syrian leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
The scale of the project involves $15 billion in estimated costs to unlock Iraq's energy potential, which includes the world's fifth-largest proven crude oil reserves. If successful, the pipeline would redirect millions of barrels of oil away from the Persian Gulf's maritime chokepoint to the Mediterranean Sea. The physical change for the energy industry would be a shift from tanker-dependent transit through the strait to a permanent underground pipeline network spanning Iraq and Syria, intended to insulate global supply from regional military tensions.
The project establishes a significant precedent for U.S.-Iraqi economic cooperation following a meeting between President Trump and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. While the U.S. Treasury anticipates the strait becoming a minor factor in energy transit by 2028, the reported four-year timeline suggests the full capacity of this bypass may not be available until 2030. What happens next depends on the clearing of old infrastructure and diplomatic negotiations with the Syrian government to secure necessary land rights for the new pipeline segments.