This aerial picture shows cars and trucks loaded with goods waiting to cross over into Syria at the al-Rabia border crossing on April 20, 2026. (AFP Photo)
Syria has begun delivering imported petrol to Iraq, months after Baghdad began exporting its oil via Syria when the Middle East war disrupted the Strait of Hormuz.
"The Syrian Petroleum Company has begun transporting petrol imported for Iraq through the Banias oil terminal" on Syria's Mediterranean coast, state news agency SANA reported on Sept. 27.
The move is part of "a renewable three-month agreement to secure energy supplies amid disruptions to maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz", it added.
The report cited Syrian Petroleum Company official Ahmed Qubbaji as saying that operations began on Sept. 24 with a first batch of 57 tankers, with work underway to increase the number of trucks crossing the Al-Tanf land border to Iraq to 200 per day.
The Qatari firm UCC was responsible for purchasing the petrol "from various global sources," with Syria then transporting it for a fee, Qubbaji said according to the report.
The operations support "Syria's role as a corridor for importing, exporting and transporting materials and energy between regional countries," he said.
The closure of Hormuz has hit Iraqi oil exports hard, and in April Baghdad said it had begun shipping crude through Syria by truck to circumvent the strait, though the amounts are far below what used to travel by sea.
Qubbaji said that up to 1,200 Iraqi oil tankers transited Syria daily.
