Iraq Is Sending Thousands of Fuel Trucks Through Syria to Bypass Hormuz: Iraq is moving fuel oil by truck through Syria and Jordan as Baghdad tries to keep exports flowing without relying on the Strait of Hormuz. Thousands of tanker trucks are making four- to six-day journeys from Iraqi refineries to Mediterranean and Red Sea ports, creating an expensive but immediate route around the disrupted waterway.
Iraq’s Oil Ministry estimates that about 1 million metric tons of fuel oil were moved by truck to Syria and Jordan in June, twice the May volume. A Bloomberg report republished by gCaptain said Syria exported about 720,000 tons during the month, giving it 28 percent of Middle Eastern fuel-oil shipments after exporting none only months earlier.
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The trucking surge is large on the highway but small compared to the maritime oil trade. Each truck carries about 20 tons, or roughly 135 barrels. A shuttle tanker can carry around 300,000 barrels to a larger vessel holding about 700,000 barrels. Moving 1 million tons by road therefore requires tens of thousands of individual truckloads.
The convoys show that Iraq and other Gulf producers no longer regard Hormuz as dependable. Trucking can relieve storage pressure, keep refineries operating, and create a commercial corridor through Syria. It cannot replace Iraq’s normal crude exports through southern Gulf terminals.
Iraq Needs a Route Around the Strait of Hormuz
Fuel oil is Iraq’s main refined-fuel export. When shipments slow, storage tanks fill, and plants can be forced to reduce operations, cutting the output of gasoline and diesel needed inside Iraq. The workaround reflects a broader Gulf effort to create routes beyond Hormuz.
The longer-term plan is to restore or build pipelines linking Iraqi production to Syria’s Mediterranean port of Baniyas, Turkey’s Ceyhan terminal, or Jordan’s Red Sea port at Aqaba. Iraq and U.S. companies signed about $60 billion in agreements in July, including energy projects and studies of alternative export routes, according to the Associated Press.
Chevron is evaluating projects tied to West Qurna 2 and Nassiriya, while Iraq’s Basra Oil Company and Qatar’s UCC are studying pipeline options. Washington has also supported reviving the old Kirkuk-Baniyas corridor through Syria, according to Reuters. The effort could redraw the region’s oil map around Iran.
Iraq has less bypass capacity than Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia can move crude to Yanbu on the Red Sea through an East-West Pipeline built for this type of disruption. The UAE sends oil to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. Iraq still depends heavily on southern Gulf terminals.
Syria Is Becoming an Energy Corridor Again
Syria’s port of Baniyas is receiving thousands of Iraqi trucks, while about 100,000 tons of fuel oil per month are moving through Jordan’s Aqaba port. For Syria, the traffic brings transit revenue and a role in a regional energy system from which it had largely been excluded.
The network will take years to build. Old pipelines require repairs, pumping stations, security arrangements, financing, and political agreements across several borders. New lines will cost billions. The Gulf’s proposed escape routes still cannot carry all the oil that normally uses Hormuz.
Trucking works sooner because it uses existing roads, terminals, and commercial fleets. Its disadvantages are cost, congestion, accident risk, border delays, and limited scale. The route is a bridge between the Hormuz crisis and the infrastructure Baghdad hopes to build.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE Already Have a Head Start
Saudi Arabia shifted most of its July crude exports toward Yanbu, while the UAE continued relying on Fujairah outside Hormuz. Reuters reported that Gulf exports rose early in July before renewed fighting again slowed tanker movements.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration said Saudi Arabia and the UAE were the only regional OPEC producers able to reroute substantial crude volumes after the strait’s closure. Saudi Arabia’s East-West Pipeline can carry up to 7 million barrels per day, while the UAE pipeline to Fujairah has a capacity of about 1.8 million barrels per day.
Those systems show why infrastructure built decades before a crisis matters. They also show the limits. Even after planned projects are completed, millions of barrels per day will still need Hormuz. Qatar’s liquefied natural gas exports are especially difficult to reroute because pipelines cannot quickly replace specialized LNG tankers and terminals.
The Hormuz Crisis Is Redrawing the Oil Map
Before the war, Hormuz handled about one-fifth of global oil and petroleum-product consumption and more than one-quarter of seaborne oil trade, according to the EIA’s chokepoint assessment. Iran does not need a permanent blockade when uncertainty makes every transit a commercial risk calculation.
The Iraqi route will matter most if it becomes permanent infrastructure rather than a temporary convoy system. A pipeline to Baniyas or Aqaba would give Baghdad a strategic outlet and reduce the amount of Iraqi production vulnerable to disruption in the Persian Gulf.
For now, the trucks are moving fuel that might otherwise remain trapped in storage and proving that an overland corridor can function. Saudi Arabia is leaning harder on the Red Sea. The UAE is expanding outside the Strait of Hormuz. Iraq is sending fuel west through Syria and Jordan. The strait remains essential, but traffic, insurance costs, and alternative routes will determine whether its leverage declines.
About the Author: Harry J. Kazianis
Harry J. Kazianis (@Grecianformula) was the former Senior Director of National Security Affairs at the Center for the National Interest (CFTNI), a foreign policy think tank founded by Richard Nixon based in Washington, DC. Harry has over a decade of experience in think tanks and national security publishing. His ideas have been published in the NY Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and many other outlets worldwide. He has held positions at CSIS, the Heritage Foundation, the University of Nottingham, and several other institutions related to national security research and studies. He is the former Executive Editor of the National Interest and the Diplomat. He holds a Master’s degree focusing on international affairs from Harvard University.
Hujjathullah M.H.Babu Sahib
July 19, 2026 at 11:36 am
Paradoxically, Iraq has to thank Trump for the “opportunity” to expedite the development of alternative fuel traffic routes to mitigate the loss of its outlet via Hormuz. It is clearly timely but should not be billed “opportunistic” because the real opportunity costs remain high !