The wartime closure of the Strait of Hormuz has triggered a major realignment in global energy logistics, with Syria emerging as a pivotal overland corridor to ferry Persian Gulf crude directly to the Mediterranean Sea, according to a report by The Washington Post.
More than 18 months after the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Syria’s new government under President Ahmed al-Sharaa is moving quickly to capitalize on lifted international sanctions and regional maritime turmoil. Around 5,000 tanker trucks now rumble daily across the Syrian desert, shuttling fuel from southern Iraqi refineries to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas after commercial shipping through the Persian Gulf was brought to a standstill by conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran.
To formalize this transit route, the Trump administration announced its backing for a $5.7 billion, 1,000-mile pipeline spearheaded by Chevron alongside France’s TotalEnergies and Gulf investors, The Washington Post reported. Projected to move up to 2 million barrels of crude oil per day from Basra to Baniyas over a construction timeline of two and a half years, the project is designed to offer oil exporters a permanent bypass around maritime choke points. U.S. special envoy Tom Barrack noted that the initiative could make the Strait of Hormuz “an afterthought.”
Syrian officials are already pitching the corridor to broader regional partners. Ahmad Qubbaji, deputy chief executive of the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Corporation, told The Post that discussions have begun with Qatari investors regarding potential pipeline extensions for crude oil and liquefied natural gas. Other Gulf producers, including Kuwait and Bahrain, are also eyeing Mediterranean access to avoid volatile maritime routes in both Hormuz and the Houthi-threatened Red Sea. Damascus has additionally inked agreements with Turkey and Saudi Arabia to revive regional railway networks linking Europe to the Gulf.
However, substantial security and infrastructure challenges remain. Syria’s domestic energy network was devastated during its 14-year civil war; major facilities like the al-Omar field operate at only a fraction of their prewar capacity and lack vital replacement parts. Energy analysts also warned that securing an overland pipeline against Islamic State cells and Iran-aligned militias operating in western Iraq represents a formidable, long-term operational risk.