Syria starts trucking gasoline into Iraq, turning Baghdad's Hormuz bypass into a two-way route

Iraq’s overland route around Hormuz now carries fuel into the country as well as out of it. Syria has started trucking gasoline into Iraq, Tareq Shallash, director of the Refining Directorate at state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company, told Reuters on Friday. The first cargo of about 32.8k tons was unloaded at Baniyas port and was being loaded onto trucks last week. At least 77 of those trucks had already left for the Iraqi border, with more queued behind them.

Until now, the traffic ran one way: Baghdad began pushing fuel oil overland through Syria after disruptions squeezed its usual Gulf export chain. More than 600k tons reached Syria in June for onward shipment from Baniyas. The gasoline adds a return leg to a route that started as an emergency export outlet.

The mechanics: Iraq’s state-owned Somo signed a supply contract with Qatar’s UCC Holding, which sources the gasoline, ships it to Baniyas by tanker, and hands it off to trucks for the overland leg into Iraq, Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesperson Saleem Al Rikabi told the newswire. The fuel was neither produced in Syria nor taken from domestic supplies, Shallash said, noting that Damascus is a transit point, not a supplier.

Why this matters: The corridor could broaden beyond gas, and some of that expansion was already in the works. The current transit agreement covers only gasoline, but future agreements could open the route to other petroleum products, crude, or even non-energy cargo, Shallash said. In June, Iraq was already preparing to move crude and naphtha through Baniyas, with initial crude volumes of c. 50k bbl / d expected once loading infrastructure was completed.

The caveat: the road is already full

More cargo means more trucks on a route that is already congested. Baniyas was handling around 900 tanker trucks a day, which created long queues and showed how hard it is to move large volumes by road.

The border is the easier fix: Iraq and Syria agreed last week to link their customs systems digitally — giving authorities on both sides shared access to shipment data and a shot at faster clearance. Traffic runs through three crossings — Al Qaim-Abu Kamal, open since June 2025, and Al Tanf-Waleed and Yarubiyah-Rabia, which reopened in April as Baghdad stepped up overland oil shipments.

What’s next: Pipelines could be the answer to the truck problem. Baghdad and Damascus signed an MoU in July to restore a pipeline link to Baniyas that could carry around 300k bbl / d, taking a large share of this traffic off the road. Further out, Iraq is developing the USD 4.6 bn Basra-Haditha pipeline, which could eventually tie into Turkey’s Ceyhan export corridor and give Baghdad another route around Hormuz.