The district mayor of Al-Rutba in Anbar Governorate, Emad Al-Rishaawi, confirmed today, Saturday, the start of the flow of imported gasoline tankers to Iraq through the Al-Walid border crossing coming from the Syrian port of Banias, noting that this operation is part of a plan to import about 3,000 tankers to address the local fuel crisis.
Al-Rishaawi stated in press statements that the first batches began entering in recent days and the operation is still ongoing, confirming that the crossing movement at the crossing is proceeding normally and without obstacles, thanks to direct coordination between the Iraqi and Syrian authorities.
These developments come after oil tankers loaded with gasoline arrived at the Syrian port of Banias, in preparation for transporting the shipments by road in tankers to Iraq as the first import batch via this route.
For its part, the Syrian Petroleum Company announced the launch of the first convoys towards the Iraqi border.
The director of institutional communication at the company, Safwan Sheikh Ahmad, explained that the Syrian ports received three tankers of petroleum derivatives, with the first one unloaded carrying 32,000 tons of gasoline, while the other two tankers are waiting for their turn to unload.
Sheikh Ahmad added that the loading operations, which began on September 22 of this year, included sending two convoys, with the first consisting of 10 tankers and the second comprising 55 tankers, confirming the readiness of the ports and technical staff to raise the loading capacity to 150 tankers per day with the arrival of the remaining tankers.
These measures aim to mitigate the gasoline shortage crisis that Baghdad and several governorates have been experiencing for weeks, following the commitments made by Minister of Oil Bassim Muhammad Al-Abadi to address the shortage and secure urgent shipments for the local market.