Syria exports 40 percent of its oil to Europe

Syria, which has banned by the United States the day before yesterday to buy its oil, has important reserves of black gold, although production and exports in steady decline for 15 years. It exports about 40 percent of its oil production to Europe, and invest, especially the French group «Total» The Anglo-Dutch company «Shell» and «China National Petroleum Company ».

Syria the only country in the Middle East has significant oil production. last year the it was thirty-second product of the oil in the world, according to figures from the Statistical Bulletin of the Group «BP».

The total production of crude oil last year was 385 thousand barrels per day, or about 0.5 percent of world production, estimated reserves of 2.5 billion barrels at the end of 2010, or about 0.2 percent of world reserves. For comparison, the Syrian production at least four times the production of Libya before the revolution.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency that oil exports was $ 143 thousand barrels per day, especially to Europe, Germany and Italy in particular France. The current oil prices, the export of black gold is a source of energy is about $ 12 billion per year to Syria.

Damascus intends to open new fields to compensate for the depletion of oil. In Syria’s two refineries and three oil terminals in addition to producing a small amount of natural gas reached 7.8 billion cubic meters in 2010, or 0.2 percent of total global production according to the «BP».