SYRIA and Iraq have agreed to repair and reopen the oil pipeline between them that has been shut since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the official Syrian newspaper Al Baath said recently. The two countries have also agreed to “build a pipeline carrying gas from the Iraqi gasfield of Akas, near the Syrian frontier, to a gas treatment plant at Deir Ezzor” in NE Syria, the report continued. Quoting Syria’s oil and mineral resources minister Sufian Allaw, the daily newspaper said the decisions were part of several economic agreements signed by the two countries.
They would "rehabilitate and reopen the oil pipeline which links Kurkuk [in northern Iraq] to Baniyas [on the Syrian coast]," where Syria has an oil refinery, the minister said.
The 32-in diameter, 880-km long pipeline, which had been closed for 18 years, reopened in November, 2000, despite the poor relations between the two countries ruled by different branches of the Ba'ath party. But it closed again after the invasion. Before March 2003, Syria, which is an overall oil exporter, received from Iraq around 200,000brl/d at preferential prices, enabling it to profit from sales on the international market.
Basket is empty.
