From Iraq to Tripoli: Lebanon eyes a new role in the regional energy map

Report by Petra Abou Haidar, English adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Lebanon today faces a real opportunity in the energy sector, and the story starts in Iraq.

After the closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the U.S. war on Iran, Baghdad began working to diversify its oil export routes. It is also planning to increase production from around 4.4 million barrels per day to nearly 10 million, meaning it will need new outlets to export these additional quantities. This is where Lebanon saw an opportunity and decided to secure a role in the project.

This was the issue discussed by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam with his Iraqi counterpart, Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, in Baghdad on Sunday.

So, what was proposed?

Iraq has signed preliminary agreements with a consortium that includes U.S. companies and a Qatari company to conduct technical and financial studies for new oil export routes.

One of the key routes would start in Basrah, pass through Haditha and reach Baniyas on the Syrian coast.

From there, Lebanon proposed creating a branch of this pipeline that would connect to the oil facilities in Tripoli, allowing the country to become part of Iraq’s oil export network through the Mediterranean.

The proposal received a positive response from Iraq, and a joint committee was formed to follow up on the issue.

Lebanon’s energy minister also sent a letter to his Iraqi counterpart requesting that a technical committee be dispatched to inspect the Tripoli facilities and study the possibility of connecting them to the project.

However, discussions were not limited to the pipeline.

The future of Tripoli’s oil facilities was also discussed, including the possibility of rehabilitating them and establishing a new refinery to process crude oil. The goal would be to meet Lebanon’s domestic needs first, and eventually export if the project proves economically viable.

In the short term, Lebanon proposed benefiting from Iraqi fuel oil exports, which would be transported by trucks to the Port of Tripoli, similar to the process through Baniyas in Syria.

The delegation said Tripoli’s facilities currently have the capacity to receive around 150,000 tons, with the possibility of increasing storage capacity by around 500,000 tons. It also proposed using the Zahrani storage tanks if cooperation expands.

According to LBCI sources, the Iraqi prime minister asked his oil minister to explore ways for Lebanon to benefit from the project, similar to Syria, as Iraq needs more than one outlet to the Mediterranean, and any connection with Lebanon would necessarily pass through Syria and require its approval.

For this reason, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said he would contact Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani to emphasize that the project could represent an opportunity for cooperation benefiting all sides.

The issue was a key part of the Salam-al-Zaidi talks, along with another file: internet connectivity.

Lebanon inquired about the possibility of laying fiber-optic cables alongside the oil pipelines, allowing it to provide Iraq with internet services and cooperate in the digital sector.

A technical committee between the two countries’ telecommunications ministries was also formed to follow up on the issue.

While these projects will not come to fruition overnight, they represent an important foundational step.

If the committees succeed in their work, they could transform Tripoli into a regional hub for energy and logistics services, securing Lebanon a role in a project that carries significant economic opportunities in the coming years.