Syrian Minister Comments on Oil and Gas Production, Consumption

The Syrian newspaper Al-Ba’th on 31 January publishes two reports on statements by Minister of Oil and Mineral Resources Sufyan Allaw about the oil and gas situation in Syria.

The minister says his ministry’s plan for 2008 includes the production of 360,000 barrels of oil daily and 1.8 billion cubic feet of gas annually. He says the plan focuses on the expansion of exploration in cooperation with the international oil companies that operate in Syria, with emphasis on the Syrian Petroleum Company, which dug 162,000 linear metres in 2007 compared to 214,000 linear metres dug by contractors.

The minister notes efforts to compensate for the gradual drop in oil production, which reached 7.8m barrels in 2007 compared to 2006. He also notes efforts to increase the amount of refined oil through the building of new oil refineries.

The minister says Syria produced 7.8 billion cubic metres of gas in 2007, a 5 per cent drop over 2006. He says Syria produces 22 million cubic metres of gas daily, of which power generators in Syria consume 12 million while the rest goes to installations. The gas is processed in four factories, and four other factories are scheduled to be built before the end of 2010.

He says the ministry invested 20 billion Syrian pounds in oil projects in 2007 while foreign companies invested about 30 billion pounds. He says Syria consumed 23 million tones of fuel in 2007, “the real cost of which – if we had to buy it – was $13 billion.” He says the imports of fuel in 2007 amounted to 7.3 million tons, worth about $4 billion, and the cost is expected to rise to 5 billion this year.

Originally published by Al-Ba’th website, Damascus, in Arabic 31 Jan 08.

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