Syria Announces Start of Gasoline Transfer to Iraq via Baniyas Terminal

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The Syrian authorities announced on Sunday that they have begun this week to deliver imported gasoline to Iraq, following the disruption of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz due to the war in the Middle East.

The Syrian news agency SANA reported, "The Syrian Petroleum Company has started the operations of transporting the gasoline supplied for Iraq through the Baniyas oil terminal."

The agency indicated that this step falls "within a three-month agreement that is renewable to secure energy supplies, amid the disruption of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz."

The agency quoted the Deputy Executive Vice President for Transport and Storage at the Syrian Petroleum Company, Engineer Ahmad Qabaji, saying, "The operations of transporting gasoline to Iraq began on Thursday with 57 tankers in the first batch, and work is ongoing to increase the operational capacity to about 200 tankers daily through the Tanf crossing."

He pointed out that the Qatari company "UCC" is "responsible for purchasing the material from several global sources, while the Syrian authorities are responsible for transporting it for transit fees.","

Qabaji noted that transit operations "provide revenues for the company and the state, and support Syria's role as a corridor for importing and exporting and transporting materials and energy between countries in the region."

At the beginning of April, Iraq announced the start of transporting oil in trucks across Syrian territory for export due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

On Sunday, Qabaji said that "the number of transported tankers currently ranges between 1,000 and 1,200 tankers daily."

Since coming to power after the ousting of Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, the new Syrian authorities have been seeking to revive the country's economy and rebuild its infrastructure, which has been severely damaged due to a war that lasted more than a decade.

Syrian officials stated that a memorandum of understanding related to the Kirkuk-Banias pipeline has been signed with the Iraqi side and that the discussions have reached their final stages to convert the memorandum into a contract, paving the way for the commencement of executive works on the ground.