Upstream Brief — Kuwait, Iraq, Syria

Exploration · Production · Pipelines 
Sunday, 19 July 2026

Iraq–Syria: Kirkuk–Baniyas pipeline revival

The Strait of Hormuz crisis is now the axis everything turns on, and Washington is throwing its weight behind rerouting Gulf crude overland. At a US-Iraq business summit in Washington on Friday, Baghdad signed dozens of preliminary deals with Western oil firms, among them a cooperation agreement with Syria to reconstruct the long-defunct crude pipeline running from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Baniyas. Chevron leads the rebuild. The line carries a nameplate capacity of 700,000 barrels per day. The economics are brutal: decades of disuse and active ISIS cells along the route mean rebuilding the 800-kilometre pipeline could cost billions.

Iraq: production collapse and the scramble for routes

Output fell more than 50% to about 1.9 million bpd in June, down from roughly 4.2 million in February before the US and Israel struck Iran. Alternatives are multiplying. Iraq and Jordan are reviving a dormant 1,600km line linking Basra to Aqaba, designed to carry up to 2.25 million bpd at an estimated $18 billion. The northern route got breathing room too, with Turkey agreeing to a one-year arrangement continuing exports through the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline into Ceyhan, pausing a clock that had been ticking toward 27 July.

Kuwait: sharp June rebound

Crude output climbed to 1.37 million bpd in June from 740,000 in May, one of the largest increases across OPEC+, as tanker traffic resumed through Hormuz.

Syria: operators return, offshore opens

Only 40% of Syria’s wells are operating, producing about 130,000 barrels and 6.3 million cubic metres of gas daily. Foreign operators are flooding back. Britain’s Gulfsands Petroleum toured Block 26 in Hasakah on 14 July, ending a 14-year suspension, with plans to rehabilitate wells and drill new ones. Offshore is the bigger prize: the Syrian Petroleum Company confirmed Chevron will proceed with offshore investment, clearing the way for the country’s first deepwater exploration project this summer.

Cmi Capital — Business Intelligence