Syrian Average Daily Oil Output Stood at 196,340 Bpd in 2008 – Agency

Text of report by state-run Syrian news agency SANA website on 5 September

[Report, citing statement to Damascus Al-Ba'th newspaper by Umar al-Hamad, director-general of the Syrian Oil Company [SOC], on SOC’s production of oil, natural gas, and electric power, datelined Damascsus; SANA headline: “68.8m barrels of oil were produced in first half of 2008.”]

Damascus -Syria’s production of oil in the first half of 2008 totalled 68,822,900 barrels of oil, of which 32,171,133 barrels were light oil and 36,651,767 were heavy oil.

Today’s Al-Ba’th newspaper quotes Umar al-Hamad, director general of the Syrian Oil Company [SOC], as saying that SOC’s production of those quantities amounted to 35,733,854 barrels out of a planned 36,004,785 barrels, am implementation percentage of 99.25 per cent of what was planned. Al-Hamad said the implemented quantity includes 63,738,307 barrels of heavy crude oil and 1,995,547 of light crude, and that this quantity exceeds what was implemented in the first half of 2007 by 365,759 barrels.

Al-Hamad said SOC’s average daily production totalled 196,340 bpd, and SOC’s average daily production together with the total condensates amounted to 206,679 bpd. He noted that the percentage of the implementation of SOC’s plan for drilling reached 120 per cent, and that the production of natural gas (free + associate) has reached 2,8227,567 thousand [all figures as received] cubic meters while the planned production was 22,656,411 [thousand] cubic meters, attributing the reason for the rise in the percentage of implementation of free natural gas to consumers’ need for natural gas.

As for electric power, Al-Hamad said SOC achieved 126 per cent of its plan in this field, by producing 364,255 thousand kwh while the planned production was 88,300 thousand kwh. He said this was in parallel with the implementation of SOC’s export plan by 104 per cent of the quantity of heavy oil of which 2,447,411 tons were exported while the planned quantity for export was 2,348,259 tonnes, and by 117 per cent of the quantity of light oil of which 1,118,355 tons were exported while the planned quantity for export was 953,060 tons. Al-Hamad noted that with regard to value, the percentage of implementation in heavy oil rose to 234 per cent and the percentage of implementation in light oil rose to 247 per cent, and attributed the increase in implementation percentages to the worldwide rise in oil prices.

As for the quantities remaining from the quantities that were produced in the first half of 2008, Al-Hamad said they were distributed among the operating companies which produced 31,207,316 barrels of both light and heavy oil whose value amounted to 154,888,550,000 Syrian pounds and constituted 109 per cent of the plan drawn for those companies (Al-Furat [Euphrates], Dayr al-Zawr, Hayan, and Kawkab Dublin) and which amounted to 28, 355,547 barrels at a value of SL 73,041,154,000. Al-Hamad said SOC’s share of the production of operating companies amounted to 1,966,377 tonnes whose value is SL 73,246,795,000. He said those companies produced 1,082,121 thousand cubic meters of both associate and free natural gas and those quantities are equivalent to 99 per cent of the planned quantities.

Al-Hamad said that SOC’s expenditure on investment in the first half of the 10th 5-year plan amounted to SL 16,978,870,000 while the planned expenditure was 19,650,000,000 [Syrian pounds], and that represented the implementation of 86 per cent of the plan drawn up for the said period and 45 per cent of the complete plan drawn up for SOC in the 10th 5-year plan. He said the expenditure was on replacement and renewal projects and on direct projects such as exploration for petroleum, housing for workers, and the buildings of the central administration, in addition to other new projects which include the establishment of joint companies for oil services, the natural gas project north and south of the area [not specified], and other projects stated in SOC’s plan for 2008 and the 10th 5-year plan.

Originally published by SANA news agency website, Damascus in Arabic 0910 5 Sep 08.

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