ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Iraq’s oil ministry said Sunday that it expects to complete negotiations with a US-Qatari consortium on building an oil pipeline linking Haditha in Iraq to the Syrian coast of Baniyas by the end of the year, paving the way for a final agreement on the project.

Iraq and Syria signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June to restore a pipeline from Haditha in the western Anbar province to Baniyas on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. Baghdad is also working to construct a new pipeline transporting oil from oil-rich Basra to Haditha.

"Negotiations with the consortium regarding the project are still ongoing", oil ministry spokesperson Salim al-Rikabi told the state newspaper, adding that he expects the discussions between the two sides to be completed “by the end of this year, in order to reach a final agreement on the project."

Rikabi added that “the ministry has formed contractual, economic, and technical committees to discuss the project’s details and reach a mutual agreement between the two sides,” with the process expected to culminate in a draft contract that lays out the mutually agreed-on framework for the project’s implementation.

The Haditha-Baniyas pipeline dates to 1925, according to Syria’s state-owned SANA news agency. It was damaged during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003 and went out of service.

Rikabi told The New Region in August that the Basra-Haditha pipeline, which ultimately will reach Turkey’s Ceyhan port, is expected to be completed in three years or less.

Iraq’s oil exports plummeted by over 80 percent following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway responsible for the transport of roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil, going from nearly 100 million barrels in February down to 18.6 million barrels in March, at the height of the conflict.

As a result, Baghdad has sought alternative long-term measures to ensure its export stability, both by increasing exports to the Ceyhan port and through transporting truckloads of oil to Baniyas.