DAMASCUS, Aug 22: Syria and Iraq have agreed to repair and reopen an oil pipeline which has been shut since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the official Syrian newspaper al-Baath said on Wednesday.

The two countries have also agreed to “build a pipeline carrying gas from the Iraqi gasfield of Akas, near the Syrian frontier, to a gas treatment plant at Deir Ezzor” in northeastern Syria, it said.

Quoting Syria’s Oil and Mineral Resources Minister Sufian Allaw, the daily said the decisions were part of several economic agreements signed by the two countries.

They would “rehabilitate and reopen the oil pipeline which links Kurkuk (in northern Iraq) to Baniyas (on the Syrian coast)” where Syria has an oil refinery, the minister said.

The pipeline, which had been closed for 18 years, reopened in November 2000, despite the poor relations between the two countries ruled by different branches of the Baath party. But it closed again after the invasion.

Before March 2003, Syria, which is an overall oil exporter, received from Iraq around 200,000 barrels a day at preferential prices, enabling it to profit from sales on the international market.

The agreements also envisage trade in petroleum products and the building of storage facilities near the frontier.—AFP