LEBANESE PM SALAM CHAIRS MEETING ON PREPARATIONS FOR IRAQI OIL TRANSIT THROUGH LEBANON

Wed 12 August 2026:

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam chaired a meeting Monday to review preparations for receiving Iraqi crude oil and petroleum products expected to transit through Lebanon, including the logistical and operational readiness needed to implement agreed arrangements.

The meeting in Beirut was attended by Energy and Water Minister Joe Saddi, Interior and Municipalities Minister Ahmad Al-Hajjar, Public Works and Transport Minister Fayez Rasamny and General Security and Customs officials, Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA) reported.

The meeting reviewed the readiness of ministries, agencies and departments involved, with Lebanon expected to initially serve as a storage and re-export hub for Iraqi crude and petroleum products.

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Officials also discussed logistical and infrastructure requirements, including rehabilitating roads to facilitate tanker traffic, increasing the capacity of border crossings to handle the expected movement and organizing traffic toward storage facilities.

Preparations also included oil storage facilities, safety requirements and operational procedures that must be completed before transit and storage operations begin.

The participants agreed to continue coordination among the relevant ministries, agencies and departments to complete preparations within the specified deadlines and ensure the required logistical and operational readiness.

The move comes alongside recent inspection tours by Lebanon’s energy minister of relevant facilities as part of preliminary plans for a long-term project aimed at attracting international investment to rehabilitate the historic Kirkuk-Tripoli oil pipeline, which has been closed for decades and was built and commissioned between 1932 and 1934.

Iraq and Lebanon are seeking to develop an alternative oil corridor linking Iraqi oil fields to the Mediterranean coast through Syrian territory as an emergency strategic measure to avert logistical and economic paralysis caused by a sharp decline in Iraqi exports following the near-total closure of the Strait of Hormuz since late February amid the US-Israeli war on Iran.

-Source: AA

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