From Kirkuk to Tripoli: Historic oil pipeline poised for comeback

Report by Yazbek Wehbe, English adaptation by Mariella Succar

The U.S. Caesar Act, which imposed sanctions on Syria, had delayed efforts to revive the Iraqi oil pipeline running from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to Baniyas in Syria and then to Tripoli in northern Lebanon.

The lifting of U.S. sanctions has now put the project back on track, driven by Iraq’s interest in supporting Lebanon and expanding its oil exports to the Mediterranean and onward to Europe, particularly amid disputes with Turkey over exports from the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

Work on the pipeline began 95 years ago by the Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). In 1940, the Tripoli refinery was established to process imported crude oil. In the 1950s, a new line was added to the Tripoli route, with a capacity of about 400,000 barrels per day.

Sources told LBCI that a technical inspection of the pipeline showed minor damage from Kirkuk to the Baniyas refinery inside Syria, while more significant damage was found between Baniyas and the Al-Buqai’a border crossing between Lebanon and Syria in the Wadi Khaled area.

The remaining section from Al-Buqai’a to Tripoli requires replacement, and the Iraqi side is prepared to consider financing this work.

The information also indicates that Lebanon — which has hosted two Iraqi technical delegations in the past three months — is ready to work on this file with both Iraq and Syria, fully aware of the economic benefits it would gain if the pipeline were reactivated and a modern refinery built.

The Iraqi side is also studying the possibility of constructing a new pipeline from Basra in southern Iraq to Kirkuk, connecting it to the existing line to Tripoli.

Before 1984, Lebanon collected transit fees on Iraqi oil, amounting to about $1 per barrel, and Iraq allocated a quantity of oil for Lebanese domestic consumption at preferential prices.

The renewed oil cooperation could bring major benefits, especially if the planned Tripoli economic zone — designed to produce all types of petroleum products — is completed.

As global competition intensifies over oil and gas fields, export routes, and diverse trade corridors, Lebanon’s strategic geographic location could allow it to play an influential and productive role — provided it approaches the matter away from political polarization and, crucially, free from corruption.