Discoveries boost for Syrian oil hopes

The UK’s Emerald Energy and the Houston-based Gulfsands Petroleum say they may be sitting on between 560 million and 720 million barrels of oil and gas in fields near the Iraq border. This and other recent promising finds are stimulating fresh interest in Syria’s oil and gas sector whose reserves have been falling sharply in recent years.

Current Syrian oil production, which provides two thirds of export receipts, is thought to be around 450,000 b/d down from a peak of 600,000 in the late 1990s and 530,000 only two years ago. Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ibrahim Haddad oil says production peaked in 1997-1998 with a rate of decline measured at between 4-6 per cent a year.

AME Info