Upstream Brief — Kuwait, Iraq, Syria

Exploration · Production · Pipelines 
Monday, July 20, 2026

Iraq–US: 48 deals, roughly $60 billion, and a corridor to the Mediterranean

The headline from Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s Washington visit is scale. Iraqi ministries, state operators and private firms signed 48 agreements, memoranda and partnership declarations with US companies, spanning oil, electricity, industry, technology and finance, worth more than $60 billion by Reuters’ tally. Baghdad did not publish the full texts or name every signatory, and most of the energy items are memoranda that record intent and still require technical studies, financing and final contracts before work begins. The through-line is unmistakable: reduce dependence on the Strait of Hormuz, where the US-Israel war against Iran has gutted southern exports, and pull Iraq’s crude westward toward the Mediterranean.

The energy deals in detail

Chevron is the centrepiece, signing three preliminary accords: stakes in the West Qurna-2 and Nasiriyah fields, plus membership of the pipeline consortium. A senior executive stressed the accords are non-binding and that commercial terms remain a long way off. ExxonMobil’s return is the other marquee item, a heads of agreement on the giant Majnoon field two years after the major left Iraq. The field-services and infrastructure layer runs underneath: Halliburton’s five-year Basra management contract, signed 5 July, and broad frameworks with Shell, KBR and GE Vernova. Outside oil, a Starlink accord with the Communications and Media Commission drew notice.

Figures are as reported; most accords are non-binding and subject to feasibility studies and final commercial terms.

The Mediterranean corridor

The Iraq-Syria element firmed up over the weekend. The Syrian Petroleum Company and Basra Oil Company signed the government-level accord to rehabilitate the Kirkuk-Baniyas line, a roughly 500-mile artery dormant since the 2003 invasion, while a separate memorandum binds the Chevron-TI Capital-UCC consortium to the technical and financial studies. The US State Department formally welcomed the plan on 17 July and set the ambition at an initial 2 million bpd once rehabilitated, up from the 700,000 bpd nameplate figure circulating a week ago. The Basra Oil Company’s direct signature ties southern Iraqi crude to Syrian transit, not just Kirkuk’s northern barrels. It remains firmly at the planning stage.

Iraq exports and the Ceyhan clock

Oil Minister Bassem Khudair said combined shipments through Hormuz and Ceyhan reached about 1.5 million bpd in early July before the latest escalation, roughly three times June’s estimated volume. Baghdad is pressing OPEC for a larger quota while reaffirming membership. The live risk this week is the 1973 Iraq-Turkey pipeline treaty, which lapses on 27 July without a renewed framework and would strip out roughly 220,000 bpd of northern flow if unresolved.

Kuwait & Syria

Kuwait showed no fresh field-level movement beyond June’s rebound to 1.37 million bpd, surfacing mainly as one of the Gulf producers weighing older pipelines to sidestep Hormuz. In Syria, sanctions relief continues to draw Chevron, TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips into exploration talks as Damascus positions itself as a transit hub as much as a producer.

Cmi Capital — Business Intelligence