Pakistan has opened six overland corridors to Iran to move stranded cargo and bypass disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could ease the country's mounting fuel import costs.
With oil prices surging, Pakistan's weekly import bill has jumped nearly 170%, rising from $300 million to $800 million a month. The country imports 85-90% of its energy, and the spike is already denting the gains made over the past two years.
The corridors link major Pakistani ports to Iranian border crossings at Gabd and Taftan. The Gwadar-Gabd route, only 89 km long, cuts travel time to the border to 2-3 hours versus 16-18 hours from Karachi. The Karachi-Port Qasim-Taftan corridor spans roughly 900 km, while the Gwadar-Taftan route via Turbat, Panjgur and Quetta stretches over 1,000 km.
Pakistan's move follows a statutory order that re-activates a 2008 bilateral road-transport agreement, allowing third-country cargo to transit through Pakistani ports. The government aims to clear more than 3,000 containers stuck at Karachi and Port Qasim.
Iraq has also expanded its overland routes, particularly with Syria. Last month, Iraq officially reopened the Rabia-Yarubiyah Crossing after more than a decade of closure. Located in Nineveh province, this route is now functional for passenger, commercial, and fuel oil tanker traffic. Iraq also opened the Al-Waleed-Al-Tanf corridor, with the route already being used to transport crude oil from Iraq to the Syrian refinery in Banyas.
The Iraqi government is also reviving plans for alternative oil pipelines, such as the Iraq-Jordan pipeline and repairing the northern Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to Turkey, currently the only operational alternative to the Persian Gulf. The government is pushing to revive the long-mooted pipeline connecting Basra to the Jordanian port of Aqaba, a key part of its long-term strategy to provide a secure, land-based export route to the Red Sea and diversify away from the Persian Gulf.
Iraq is also in the final phases of repairing the northern Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline, which connects northern oil fields directly to Turkey's Mediterranean port, allowing them to bypass Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) territory. The line has a capacity to carry 1 million barrels of crude per day. Meanwhile, the country has also launched the $5-billion Basra-Haditha pipeline project to connect southern oil fields to western Iraq, enable exports via Jordan and Syria and connect to the Turkish route.
These land-based alternatives are expected to reduce Pakistan's exposure to maritime chokepoints and help stabilize its energy supply chain. If the corridors operate at full capacity, they could lower transportation costs and provide a more resilient route for future disruptions.
