The Syrian Petroleum Company began loading the first Iraqi fuel oil shipments on Wednesday, April 15, at Baniyas oil terminal, ahead of their export via the designated tanker.
Enab Baladi’s correspondent in Tartus, western Syria, said the cargo was being loaded onto the tanker ASAHI PRINCESS, with a volume of about 85,000 tons. He added that this was the first export operation through the Syrian oil port since Dec. 8, 2024.
In a statement, the Syrian Petroleum Company said the step reflected the readiness of the infrastructure and the efficiency of national staff in managing transport and export operations.
The operation also confirms, according to the company, Syria’s growing role as a strategic corridor in regional energy movement, and its ability to provide effective logistical solutions that support supply continuity and strengthen integration among countries in the region.
The acting head of al-Rutbah district in Iraq’s Anbar province, Imad Mishaal, said that between 500 and 700 tankers carrying Iraqi black oil, each with a 30-ton load, cross daily into Syria through the al-Waleed border crossing in the district, opposite the al-Tanf crossing on the Syrian side.
Mishaal told the Iraqi network Rudaw that work is underway at Syria’s Baniyas port to repair pumps and increase the speed of oil storage.
He added that the crossing can handle the passage of more than 1,000 trucks per day, attributing the lower number of tankers passing through the crossing to delays in permits sent to the border point by Iraq’s national oil export center.
Mishaal said the Syrian side is working to increase the number of pumps designated for unloading Iraqi crude oil tankers in order to speed up storage operations, noting that the port’s current capacity allows it to store the equivalent of 300 tankers per day.
The first convoys of Iraqi fuel oil tankers had entered Syrian territory through the al-Tanf border crossing and headed toward the Baniyas refinery, western Syria, according to an announcement by the Syrian Ministry of Energy on April 1.
The ministry said the shipments were being unloaded into designated tanks inside the refinery, ahead of their transfer to Baniyas oil terminal and loading onto ships designated for export, according to available storage capacity and under operating mechanisms that reflect the readiness of the national infrastructure to manage this type of operation.
The Crossing Reopens for Convoys
Mazen Alloush, director of the Syrian General Authority for Land and Sea Ports, announced the reopening of the al-Tanf, al-Waleed border crossing on March 31, confirming the entry of the first convoys of Iraqi oil tankers heading toward Baniyas oil terminal.
Alloush said the reopening came within the framework of strengthening economic cooperation between Syria and Iraq, adding that the step reflects “the activation of commercial transit movement and the strengthening of transit energy flows through Syrian territory.”
According to Reuters, Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO signed contracts to supply about 650,000 metric tons of fuel oil per month from this April through next June, to be transported overland through Syria, according to a company document seen by the agency and Iraqi energy sector officials.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, whom Reuters did not name, the end of the war in Syria, along with the Israeli-Iranian war, has made the Syrian route the best option for now, despite the higher cost.
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