Western Oil Firms, Including Chevron, Sign New Energy Deals With Iraq

Agreements include a plan to rebuild a crude pipeline linking Iraq to Syria

U.S. and other Western oil companies signed a series of energy agreements with Iraq on Friday, expanding foreign investment in the country's oil-rich infrastructure, according to Al Jazeera and The Hill.

Among the deals is an agreement involving Chevron aimed at rebuilding a crude oil pipeline that runs from Iraq's Kirkuk oil fields to the Baniyas terminal in Syria, Al Jazeera reported. The pipeline has long sat idle, and reviving it would restore a key export route through a region reshaped by years of conflict.

The Hill reported that U.S. firms signed several oil-related and other commercial agreements with Baghdad on Friday, part of a broader push by American companies to deepen economic ties with Iraq.

The agreements underscore Iraq's push to rebuild aging energy infrastructure and attract Western capital after decades of war and sanctions curtailed development of its oil sector, one of the largest in the world by reserves. Rebuilding the Kirkuk-Baniyas link would also give Iraqi crude a new outlet to Mediterranean markets, potentially altering regional oil flows at a moment of heightened tension across the Middle East.

Neither outlet detailed the full financial terms of the agreements or a timeline for construction on the pipeline project.

— Compiled from reporting by Al Jazeera and The Hill.