Syria and Iraq are in the final stages of talks on a contract to restore a key oil pipeline between the two countries, a Syrian official said Tuesday, with the work expected to take about three years.
Last month, Damascus signed a memorandum of understanding with Baghdad to revive the Haditha-Banias pipeline for transporting oil from Iraq to Syria's coast, linking Iraqi production to export markets in the Mediterranean and beyond.
A consortium of three companies, including Chevron, is set to carry out the project.
The U.S. State Department last month welcomed the plan, calling it "of bilateral and regional strategic significance."
On Tuesday, Syrian Petroleum Company CEO Youssef Qablawi told a press conference at the Rmeilan oil field in the country's northeast that "negotiations have begun to finalize the contract."
