Iraq’s plan to export oil via a pipeline in Syria and bypass the Strait of Hormuz will probably require four years of construction and will cost at least $15 billion.

Reuters, citing informed sources, wrote that this project requires entirely new pipeline infrastructure, not the reconstruction of an existing pipeline.

Yousef Qabbawi, managing director of Syria’s state-owned oil company, said two weeks ago that rebuilding the pipeline from Haditha in Iraq to the port of Banias in Syria would “take at most three years.”

Based on earlier reports, the reconstruction of this pipeline had been estimated to take two to three years and cost between $4 and $8 billion.

The U.S. State Department also said in a statement: “After the reconstruction, this flagship project will have an initial crude oil transfer capacity of two million barrels per day.”