Syria Begins Trucking Gasoline to Iraq as Hormuz Disruption Forces New Overland Fuel Route

Syria has opened a new leg on an energy corridor that used to run only one direction. According to Reuters, Tareq Shallash, who heads the Refining Directorate at the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company, confirmed that the first shipment of imported gasoline, about 32,800 metric tons, arrived at Syria's Baniyas refinery aboard the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Avanti and was pumped into storage before being loaded onto trucks this week.

Shallash said 77 tanker trucks have already left Baniyas for the Iraqi border, with loading still underway and more shipments on the way. He was clear that none of this gasoline was produced in Syria or pulled from stock meant for Syrian consumers. It's imported fuel passing through.

The timing matters. Iraq started using Syrian territory to move its own fuel oil after the war between the US and Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Iraq's main Gulf trade artery, according to Reuters reporting carried by Arab News and Asharq Al-Awsat. Baghdad has already said it intends to keep building these overland alternatives even if Hormuz traffic goes back to normal.

Shipping data from LSEG shows another Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, the Gaita, loaded gasoline at the Port of Houston before sailing to Baniyas for discharge. So this isn't Syrian fuel headed to Iraq. It's American-refined gasoline routed through a Qatari trading company, unloaded in Syria, and then trucked across the border into Iraq.

The shipments move under a transit contract between the Syrian Petroleum Company and Qatar's UCC Holding, which Shallash identified as both the supplier and the logistics operator. Iraq's Oil Ministry confirmed the arrangement. Spokesperson Saleem al-Rikabi told Reuters, "A contract was signed between SOMO and the Qatari company to supply Iraq with improved gasoline through the port of Baniyas by road tankers, and the supplies have in fact been delivered on a regular basis."

Right now the deal only covers gasoline. Shallash said future agreements could expand it to crude oil, other refined products, and additional goods.

This truck route isn't happening in isolation. UCC Holding is also part of a consortium with Chevron and TI Capital studying whether to revive the old Kirkuk-Baniyas crude pipeline, according to reporting from The Cradle carried by ZeroHedge and American Partisan. Iraq and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding on that project in Washington in July. Reuters reported in August that reviving the pipeline could take four years and cost at least $15 billion, since it would require almost entirely new infrastructure.

So the truck convoys moving this week are a stopgap. A pipeline that would let Iraqi crude bypass the Gulf entirely is the larger objective if the project moves forward.

Analysis from Hamer Intel estimated that 77 truckloads works out to roughly 8,000 to 12,000 tonnes of gasoline, or about 65,000 to 95,000 barrels. That's a rounding error against global oil markets. Hamer Intel's own assessment called the volume "immaterial to global balances but locally important," while noting it signals regional actors are already improvising land routes because Gulf export lanes are strained.

The corridor has been formalized through a signed SOMO-UCC Holding transit contract, confirmed independently by both Syrian and Iraqi officials, suggesting a structured government-to-government arrangement rather than ad hoc smuggling. But 77 truckloads is a pilot, not a proven long-term substitute for tanker traffic through Hormuz.

Iraq's Oil Ministry has confirmed regular deliveries are happening, but no source has put a timeline on when, or whether, the current gasoline-only arrangement expands into crude oil shipments or the $15 billion pipeline project actually breaks ground. Until Hormuz traffic stabilizes or the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline gets built, this truck route is the closest thing Iraq has to an insurance policy, and it's currently running on Texas gasoline shipped through Qatar.