DAMASCUS, Syria, March 14 (UPI) -- Syria wants to increase imports of Iraqi oil by rebuilding a pipeline, as well as become a main export route for Iraq to other markets.
Abdallah al-Dardari, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, said it wants to be Iraq's main exporter via its Mediterranean terminal at Banias and also use the oil to fuel three new refineries, upstreamonline.com reports.
"Linking the two oil and gas networks is in our mutual interest," Dardari said. "We are studying with the Iraqi side how Syria could become an important link to deliver Iraqi output to the world and to the Syrian market."
A pipeline pumped between 100,000 and 200,000 barrels per day of oil from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Banias in the two years before the 2003 invasion. U.S. fighters bombed the pipeline.
Iraq's oil ministry said it plans to rebuild it, but wants the security situation to improve first. The minister also said Syria needs to do more to stop insurgents from crossing into Iraq from Syria.
"Syria is the closest point for Iraq on the Mediterranean and it's in Iraq's interest to export crude efficiently," Dardari said. "We also have a stake in earning transit fees and using Iraqi crude to operate a group of refineries we plan to develop."
