Iraq, Syria target 1 million barrels per day via revived Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline

WASHINGTON, United States — WASHINGTON — Iraq and Syria have moved into the strategic planning phase to revive the Kirkuk–Baniyas oil pipeline, with a target of pumping 1 million barrels per day, the two countries' top diplomats in Washington said on Thursday. Speaking at an event hosted by the New Lines Institute at the National Press Club under its "Four Seas Initiative," Iraqi Ambassador Nazar Al-Hayrullah and Syrian Chargé d'Affaires Mohammed Kanatri said broad steps were under way to reopen the 800-kilometer pipeline, originally built in 1952. Hayrullah said a high-level Iraqi delegation that visited Damascus last year reviewed the pipeline's technical and financial details, with estimated restoration and rehabilitation costs put at around $8 billion so far. Hayrullah said the line would be designed to carry more than the 300,000 barrels per day it handled in earlier operations, and that southern oilfields would also be connected, not just those around Kirkuk. Kanatri said Syria was ready to move Iraqi oil and gas to Turkey and the Mediterranean, adding that facilities on the Syrian side were prepared to resume operations.