Iraq is exploring a highly ambitious plan to construct a crude oil pipeline to Oman, a strategic move designed to secure a vital export route that bypasses the volatile Strait of Hormuz and mitigates logistical frailties at its own southern terminals.

According to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the talks, between Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) and Oman’s OQ Trading, aim to establish a conduit from the oil-rich Basrah province to an Omani port.

The move would grant Baghdad access to open waters, insulating its most critical revenue stream from geopolitical shocks and operational delays. Ali al-Shatari, SOMO’s general manager, confirmed the rationale behind the discussions.

“Exporting via Oman’s open waters ensures more stable shipments and fewer weather-related disruptions compared to Basrah’s ports,” he said in a statement on September 12, carried by INA. He added the agreement would allow Oman to “leverage its strategic location ... facilitating closer access for Iraqi crude oil exports to Asian customers.”

The plan’s geopolitical urgency has been underscored by recent heightened tensions between Iran and Israel, which prompted threats from Tehran to close the Strait of Hormuz. The chokepoint, through which roughly 20% of the world’s energy supplies transit, represents a significant vulnerability for Baghdad.

Oman has export capacity at the ports of Sohar, Mina Al-Fahal near Muscat, Duqm and the nearby Ras Markaz crude oil terminal.

With Iraq’s key Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline in the north of the country closed since 2023, nearly all its crude is exported through its southern Gulf terminals, where ships must transit the crucial chokepoint at the Strait of Hormuz. There have also been operational challenges at the Al-Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) and the Khor Al-Amaya Oil Terminal (KAAOT) at various points throughout the past decade, including leakages and single-point moorings having to be taken out of service.

This nascent pipeline project is part of a broader energy and economic partnership between the two nations, formalised during a recent visit to Muscat by an Iraqi delegation led by Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani. According to INA, the two sides signed multiple memoranda of understanding, including provisions for Iraq to use Omani storage facilities, such as Ras Markaz, and to collaborate on marketing its crude.

While perhaps at less risk from civil unrest than Iraq’s existing (but moribund) pipelines to Syria and Saudi Arabia, a subsea conduit the 1,000km or so to Oman, presumably via the territorial waters of either Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia or the UAE (unless the plan is to meander through a narrow area of international waters), is highly ambitious.

There have been previous efforts to bridge the Gulf by pipeline, with talk of a gas line from Iran to Oman the furthest developed of these, and as at present, the Dolphin Gas Project – connecting Qatar with UAE and Oman – and the A/B oil pipeline – connecting Saudi Arabia with Bahrain – are the only cross-border, subsea pipelines in the Gulf.