Overland Route to Baniyas
Iraqi crude oil is being transported overland across Syria to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas, where it is loaded for export. The arrangement moves barrels by truck from Iraq through Syrian territory to the coast, reactivating Baniyas as an outlet for regional crude after years of limited use.
The flow operates under a transport contract linking Iraq's state oil marketer, a Qatar-based holding company acting as supplier and transport supervisor, and the Syrian side handling the port.
Volumes and Truck Capacity
The volume moved along the route has been put at between 120,000 and 150,000 barrels per day, varying with the number of trucks available. The director general of the Basra Oil Company cited that range, tying throughput directly to haulage capacity rather than to any pipeline. Trucking on that scale depends on a steady fleet crossing the border and on the Syrian road network holding up under heavy, repeated loads.
Bypassing the Hormuz Chokepoint
The overland corridor has gained importance as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz faces disruption linked to the war with Iran. With its usual Gulf export lane constrained, Baghdad has turned to the route across Syria to keep barrels reaching international buyers.
Iraq's Production Push
Iraq's oil minister said on 7 November 2026 that national output exceeds five million barrels per day and that the country remains committed to its OPEC ceiling of about 4.33 million barrels per day, adding that talks are under way to raise that quota. The government has set a longer-term target of ten million barrels per day.
Significance for the Coast
For Syria, the traffic turns Baniyas and the roads feeding it into a working corridor for a neighbor's oil exports. The revived loadings place Syrian port and haulage infrastructure at the center of a cross-border workaround built around a single stretch of coastline. Sustained at the upper end of the cited range, the corridor would keep a steady stream of tankers calling at the port through the winter months.