Eco Iraq Observatory: Four Pipeline Routes Could Cut Baghdad's Reliance on the Strait of Hormuz

Iraq's Eco Iraq Observatory proposed developing four oil pipeline corridors to reduce the country's reliance on the Strait of Hormuz, Shafaq News reported on Sunday, 8 Shahrivar 1405 (August 30, 2026), suggesting alternative routes through Jordan, Syria, Oman and Turkiye. Before the regional war began, about 95 percent of Iraqi crude exports passed through Hormuz. Iraq's Oil Minister, Basim Mohammed Khudair Al Abadi, has said the country's oil exports in August averaged about two million barrels per day, still below pre war levels.

According to the report, a Basra to Haditha to Jordan's Al Aqaba route and a Haditha to Syria's Baniyas route are proposed to reach the Red Sea and the Mediterranean; Iraq is already advancing the Basra to Haditha section, designed to carry about 2.25 million barrels per day. A third route would run through Saudi Arabia and Oman to the Arabian Sea, and a fourth would connect Haditha to Kirkuk and Turkiye's Ceyhan port. Iraq's northern pipeline was exporting about 130,000 barrels per day in mid August under a one year agreement with Turkiye that provides for capacity of about 750,000 barrels per day.