Overview
- Iraq’s Rabia–Yarubiyah post, which reopened Monday, restores all three official Iraq–Syria crossings to service.
- Iraq’s state oil marketer SOMO has contracts to truck about 650,000 metric tonnes of fuel oil each month from April to June via Syria to Mediterranean ports such as Tartus and Baniyas.
- Energy officials expect tanker convoys to begin crossing in the coming days, though trucking capacity and border processing are already stretched and overland transport costs more than sea shipment.
- Iraqi and Syrian officials discussed steps to speed transit at the post, and Syria stands to collect transit fees and port charges as cargo moves to its terminals.
- The shift follows weeks of disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil chokepoint, with Iraq’s budget heavily exposed because oil provides roughly 90% of state revenue.