Iraq Oil Pipeline Company SCOP: Basra, Ceyhan & 2026 Network

The Iraq Oil Pipeline Company — formally the State Company for Oil Projects (SCOP) — is the Ministry of Oil entity responsible for designing, building, and operating Iraq’s crude oil and gas pipeline network. It is the infrastructure arm behind a system that, at full capacity, moves approximately 3.4 million barrels per day from the southern Basra fields to export terminals on the Persian Gulf. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz between February and April 2026 exposed the single-point-of-failure risk at the heart of that system — and put SCOP’s pipeline expansion programme at the top of Baghdad’s urgent infrastructure agenda.

SCOP operates under the Iraqi Ministry of Oil and covers the full project lifecycle for petroleum infrastructure: basic and detailed engineering design, materials procurement, EPC contracting, site execution, testing, and commissioning for pipelines, storage tanks, oil depots, and export terminals. It is the state counterpart to international EPC contractors on every major Iraqi pipeline project.

SCOP’s Role in Iraq’s Export Infrastructure

Iraq’s crude export system is built around the southern Basra complex — the Rumaila, Zubair, West Qurna, Majnoon, and Halfaya fields feeding through a gathering and trunk pipeline network to the Basra Oil Terminal (BOTAS) and the Al-Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT) offshore loading platforms in the northern Persian Gulf. At pre-war production levels, these terminals were handling approximately 3.3–3.4 million barrels per day of crude exports — the overwhelming majority of Iraq’s oil revenue and around 90% of the national budget.

SCOP is the entity that builds and maintains the infield pipelines, transfer lines, tank farms, and export connections across this system. Its project portfolio spans the full length of Iraq — from Basra gathering infrastructure in the south to the Kirkuk–Ceyhan trunk line in the north, a 970-kilometre pipeline running from Kirkuk to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan with designed capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day across its two pipes. SCOP has been involved in inspection, repair, and upgrade works on this line across multiple decades of conflict damage and political interruption.

The Kirkuk-Ceyhan line — also known as the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline (ITP) — is Iraq’s only significant alternative crude export route. After a two-and-a-half-year closure triggered by an ICC arbitration ruling against the Kurdistan Regional Government’s independent exports, the pipeline resumed operations in September 2025. When Iranian strikes on tankers and Basra infrastructure forced a near-total shutdown of southern exports in late February 2026, the northern route carried the full weight of Iraq’s residual export capacity — a maximum of approximately 200,000–250,000 barrels per day, compared to the 3.4 million bpd that had been flowing through Basra. For the full timeline of the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline’s recent history, see the OGSN coverage of the Iraq-Turkiye pipeline resumption and 2026 deadline.

The Strategic Pipeline — and Why It Failed

Iraq has long recognised the vulnerability of routing all exports through the Strait of Hormuz. The original solution was the Strategic Pipeline — a north-south trunk line built in 1975 to carry Basra crude overland to Haditha in Anbar province, from where it could connect to the Kirkuk-Ceyhan system and reach the Mediterranean without passing through the Gulf. At its original design, the pipeline was intended to carry over 1 million barrels per day.

It never performed at that capacity. Damaged during the Iran-Iraq War and again during the 1991 Gulf War, then severely degraded by the 2003 invasion — including the destruction of the K-3 pumping station at Haditha — the Strategic Pipeline was reduced to approximately 50,000 barrels per day of domestic supply use by 2012. The southern pumping stations were destroyed. Sections were left unrepaired for years. By the time of the 2026 crisis, the line was operationally irrelevant as an export route.

This failure is the direct context for the Basra-Haditha pipeline project — and for the urgency SCOP is now operating under.

Basra-Haditha Pipeline — SCOP’s $4.6 Billion Mandate

On 30 December 2024, Iraq’s Cabinet approved a IQD 5.97 trillion ($4.6 billion) contract for the construction of a 685-kilometre crude oil pipeline from Basra to Haditha, replacing the degraded Strategic Pipeline with a modern line capable of carrying up to 2.25 million barrels per day. The contract was awarded jointly to Basra Oil Company (BOC) and SCOP — with a secondary contract signed between SCOP and the State Company for Iron and Steel on 7 January 2025 for materials supply. Funding is drawn from the Iraq-China oil-for-infrastructure Sinosure framework signed in 2019.

The Basra-Haditha line is designed as a strategic diversification asset. At Haditha, the pipeline connects to the onward network toward Ceyhan in Turkey, Baniyas in Syria, and Aqaba in Jordan — three Mediterranean and Red Sea export options that entirely bypass the Strait of Hormuz. At full capacity, a functioning Basra-Ceyhan overland route would give Iraq an export corridor capable of moving well over 1 million barrels per day independent of Gulf tanker traffic. It is the infrastructure the crisis of early 2026 proved was urgently needed.

In April 2026, with the Hormuz crisis still fresh and Basra exports only beginning to recover, Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ Al-Sudani directed the formation of a dedicated high-level commission to accelerate the project — chaired by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Oil. The government simultaneously allocated $1.5 billion in 2026 funding, drawn from the China framework, to begin active construction. The Council of Ministers approved direct invitation of specialised companies to bid for construction, bypassing standard tender timelines. The pipeline’s planned capacity and strategic positioning make it one of the most consequential energy infrastructure projects currently underway anywhere in the global pipeline construction pipeline.

SCOP’s Wider Project Portfolio

Beyond the headline Basra-Haditha project, SCOP maintains a continuous programme of pipeline, tank, and terminal construction across Iraq. Recent confirmed work includes a horizontal directional drilling (HDD) operation completed in early 2025 — laying a 42-inch gas pipeline beneath the Tigris River at Sayafiyah, a 600-metre crossing at 22 metres depth, as part of the Mahmudiya-Bismayah gas infrastructure project. SCOP also executed gas pipeline work in Basra in cooperation with the South Gas Company, adding 600 tonnes per day of liquefied gas production capacity and approximately 55 million standard cubic feet per day of dry gas supply to power stations.

In southern Iraq, SCOP has been involved in the Nassiriya Integrated Project — a new crude oil storage and handling facility developed with China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering Corp. (CPPE) as EPC contractor. The company also led the new fuel oil pipeline connecting Samawa Refinery to the Samawa Combined Cycle Power Plant, supporting domestic energy supply independent of export constraints.

Gas infrastructure has become an increasing part of SCOP’s workload as Iraq attempts to reduce the gas flaring that costs the country an estimated $1 billion or more annually in wasted resource. A dry gas pipeline programme supporting power generation has been progressing under Ministry of Oil directives, with SCOP coordinating engineering and execution across multiple southern field locations.

The 2026 Crisis and What It Means for SCOP

The conflict that closed the Strait of Hormuz from late February 2026 onward was the most severe test of Iraq’s export infrastructure since the Gulf War. At peak disruption, Iraqi crude production dropped to approximately 800,000–900,000 barrels per day — less than a quarter of pre-war output of 4.25 million barrels per day. The Basra loading terminals halted operations. Storage tanks filled within days. Fields including Rumaila — normally producing 1.35 million bpd — cut output to around 400,000 bpd. The Kirkuk-Ceyhan route, carrying 200,000–250,000 bpd, was the only functioning export outlet, and political friction between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government complicated even that limited relief.

With the Strait of Hormuz progressively reopening from mid-April 2026 under a de facto exemption negotiated between Iraq and Iran, Basra exports are recovering. A first Iraqi crude tanker transited Hormuz on 5 April, and SOMO requested lifting schedules from buyers with all Basra terminals described as fully operational. The recovery is expected to take approximately three months to restore production to pre-war levels, with around 17 million barrels of onshore inventory and over 20 million barrels in floating storage in the Persian Gulf available for immediate shipment.

But the structural lesson is clear: Iraq’s dependence on a single export corridor through a strategically contested chokepoint is an existential fiscal risk for a country that derives 90% of government revenue from oil exports. SCOP’s Basra-Haditha mandate is no longer a long-term infrastructure programme — it is an emergency response. The wider context of Middle East export route diversification, including the Southern Gas Corridor and UAE-Azerbaijan energy nexus, underscores how comprehensively the region’s pipeline thinking has shifted since February 2026.

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