With the Strait of Hormuz blocked, Iraq is using Syria as a transit route to transport oil.

Iraqi border crossing authorities said on the 2nd that 70 oil tankers loaded with crude oil crossed from Iraq into Syria via the Rabia border crossing. This marks the reopening of this land-based oil transport route by Iraq after 13 years. The Rabia border crossing, located in Iraq's northwestern Nineveh province, had been closed for a long period after the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and only reopened this April. The crossing is not far from the oil fields of Mosul and Kirkuk in northern Iraq.