The first shipments of high-octane gasoline imported by sea from the United States have begun traveling by truck from Syria’s Baniyas port to Iraq’s Baiji refinery under a transit arrangement.
The move lays the groundwork for a two-way overland energy corridor through Syrian territory, an alternative route Baghdad recently adopted to secure vital fuel supplies after maritime shipping through the Strait of Hormuz was halted.
Tariq Shalash, deputy CEO of the Syrian Petroleum Company for refining and chemical industries, told Reuters that the first shipment bound for Iraq amounted to about 32,800 metric tons of gasoline. He stressed that the gasoline was neither produced in Syria nor drawn from stocks allocated to the domestic market.
Shalash added that the shipment arrived aboard the Avanti oil tanker, which sails under the Marshall Islands flag. The cargo was unloaded into storage facilities at the Baniyas refinery before being transported overland by truck, equivalent to about 234,000 barrels.
Shalash said 77 tanker trucks had already departed Baniyas for Iraq, adding that loading operations were continuing regularly as further shipments arrived.
The operation is being carried out under a transportation contract between the Syrian Petroleum Company and Qatar-based UCC Holding, which acts as the supplier and transportation supervisor. The initial term of the contract is six months.
Iraqi Oil Ministry spokesperson Salim al-Rikabi previously announced that Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil, SOMO, had signed a contract with the Qatari company to supply Iraq with high-octane gasoline through Baniyas port using tanker trucks. He said Iraq had begun receiving the supplies regularly.
Iraq began using the Syrian route several months ago after the war with Iran cut off the route through the Strait of Hormuz. Baghdad said at the time that it planned to continue using alternative routes through Syria even if traffic through the strait returned to normal.
Shipping data from the London Stock Exchange Group showed that another Marshall Islands-flagged tanker, the Gaita, loaded gasoline at the US port of Houston before sailing to Baniyas to unload its cargo.
Reuters reported in July that Iraqi fuel oil transported overland to Baniyas and then loaded onto a tanker reached the United States for the first time.
Shalash said the current transportation contract is limited to gasoline, but added that the route could later be expanded to include other petroleum products, crude oil, or other goods under future agreements.
In the same context, Safwan Sheikh Ahmad, director of institutional communications at the Syrian Petroleum Company, described the move as the first of its kind to embody direct economic cooperation and activate logistics corridors between Damascus and Baghdad.
Sheikh Ahmad had previously said the shipment was not intended for Syria but would instead be transported by tanker trucks to Iraq under an agreement between the two countries. He said three tankers had arrived in Baniyas to unload their cargoes before the fuel was supplied to Iraq.
Syria had not imported any shipment of oil or petroleum products from the United States in previous years because of US sanctions imposed on the country since 1979. Those sanctions were lifted this year as part of US support for the new government headed by Ahmed al-Sharaa.
The US gasoline shipment to Iraq marks a new chapter in Baghdad’s fuel import landscape, particularly after the country relied on imports from the United Arab Emirates and India between January and the end of August 2026.
With the Strait of Hormuz closed, Iraq was compelled to turn to imports from the United States, particularly as the country has faced a gasoline shortage for several months that has worsened in recent days.