US backs Iraq-Syria oil pipeline rehabilitation deal

The United States has announced its support for a major agreement between Iraq and Syria to rehabilitate a long-dormant oil pipeline, a project aimed at providing a crucial alternative export route for Iraqi crude and reducing regional dependence on the volatile Strait of Hormuz. The memorandum of understanding was signed on Friday, July 17, 2026, in Washington, D.C., during a U.S. Chamber of Commerce summit focused on American investment in Iraq.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright presided over the signing ceremony between Bassem Abdul Karim Nasr, CEO of Iraq’s Basra Oil Company, and Youssef Qablawi, CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company. Wright stated that the project represents an opportunity to drive improvement in Iraq, raise oil production, and reduce dependencies on hostile neighbors. The U.S. State Department welcomed the engagement of a U.S.-led international consortium to execute the technical and financial aspects of the project, calling it a priority infrastructure project of bilateral and regional strategic significance.

The pipeline in question historically connected oil fields in Kirkuk, northern Iraq, to the Syrian port of Baniyas on the Mediterranean coast. It has...