The State Department said both countries recognise the strategic objective of restoring the pipeline, adding that the project would have an initial transport capacity of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day.
The Iraqi News Agency (INA) also reported that Iraq and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding to rehabilitate the oil pipeline linking Haditha in Iraq to Baniyas in Syria, with US energy company Chevron set to implement the project.
Separately, the agency added that Iraq is set to sign 50 agreements and memorandums of understanding with the US worth $60 billion.
The pipeline, which runs from the oil-rich Kirkuk region in northern Iraq to Syria’s Mediterranean port of Baniyas, has been out of service since it was damaged during the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
The announcement comes as global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has sharply declined in the wake of the US-Israeli war on Iran, prompting countries to consider alternative routes.
Chevron has been continuing talks with Iraq to produce technical studies and evaluate potential pipeline routes to transport crude out of the country and bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who took office in May, visited Chevron’s Houston headquarters on Thursday as part of a five-day trip to the US, which included a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
