Hundreds of tanker trucks are queueing outside a depot near Basra to load Iraqi crude oil bound for the Syrian port of Baniyas, reviving an overland desert route that had been largely unused for decades, Reuters reported in an exclusive dispatch on Friday, November 13.

Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026

Iraq, OPEC's second-largest producer, has been working to find alternative export routes for its oil since the Strait of Hormuz, its usual outlet, was disrupted by the Iran war, Reuters said. Al Jazeera reported on November 12 that Syria is receiving hundreds of Iraqi oil trucks hauling crude overland to Baniyas as an alternative energy corridor to Europe while the strait is largely blocked.

Source: Al Jazeera, Nov 12, 2026

120,000 to 150,000 barrels a day by truck

Since last month, Qatari energy group UCC Holding has been shipping Iraqi crude oil by truck to Baniyas under a contract with state oil marketer SOMO, Bassem Abdul Karim, director general of the state-run Basra Oil Company, told Reuters. UCC began shipping 120,000 to 150,000 barrels per day — yaani about 1.2 to 1.5 lakh barrels every day — with volumes depending on truck availability, he added.

Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026

The crude is trucked to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas from Iraq's southern oilfields for export to international markets, Abdul Karim said. A person familiar with the deal told Reuters UCC already has a fleet of 6,000 trucks, is expanding it to 10,000, and currently has around 10,000 drivers, with about 150,000 barrels unloaded per day. Oil from Baniyas ships onward to refineries in Greece, Italy and Turkey, a source told Reuters.

Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026

120,000–150,000barrels per day trucked to Baniyas, Basra Oil Company via Reuters
6,000 → 10,000UCC truck fleet, now and planned expansion
1.6 millionbarrels loaded since the deal took effect on October 26
$38discount per barrel in the three-month plan document seen by Reuters

What the contract covers

Since the deal took effect on October 26, UCC has loaded about 1.6 million barrels, Luay Jawad, manager of the Tuba storage facility near Basra, told Reuters. UCC plans to load between 5 million and 14 million barrels of heavy crude over three months from October 14 at a discount of $38 per barrel — yaani about 38 dollars less on every barrel than the reference price — according to a document reviewed by Reuters.

Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026

Despite higher transportation costs, the overland route has regained appeal also because of an end to years of conflict in Syria, two people close to the matter told Reuters. Iraq still exports most of its crude from Gulf terminals, so the Syrian route remains a small but strategically significant alternative for moving heavy crude while Hormuz remains disrupted.

Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026

Iraq produced nearly 4.5 million barrels per day in October, about half a million barrels more than a month earlier, according to secondary sources cited by OPEC in its latest monthly report, Reuters said.

Source: Reuters, Nov 13, 2026

What happens next

Watch whether UCC reaches its planned 10,000-truck fleet and the upper end of its 5–14 million barrel loading plan, and whether the Baniyas route grows beyond heavy crude if Hormuz disruption continues. No Iraqi or Syrian government statement beyond the Basra Oil Company and SOMO contract details reported by Reuters had been published in the reporting available on Friday.