China National Petroleum Corporation, or CNPC, plans to raise production from Syria’s Kbebah oil field to 16,000 barrels a day from 14,000 barrels a day, an official with the company said.

‘We’re planning to increase output from the field in two years time,’ the official told Dow Jones Newswires on the sideline of an international oil and gas exhibition at the Syrian capital, Damascus, late Tuesday.

The company signed a contract with state-run Syria Petroleum Co., or SPC, in March 2003 to undertake an enhanced oil recovery project for Kbebah field in the northeast of Syria in al-Hasakah governorate.

CNPC is also interested in the seven heavy oil development areas and eight exploration blocks the Syrian government is currently offering to foreign investors, the official said.

The company is in discussions with the Syrian government to build 100,000-barrel-a-day refinery in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria, he said. The refinery is expected to cost more than $2 billion, according to Syrian officials.

The first Sino-Syrian joint venture, Kawkab Oil Company, was created in Damascus in 2004 with the aim of exploring oil and gas in the Kbebah area. Each of the state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company and China National Petroleum Corp., holds a 50 % stake in the joint-company.

Syria is currently producing 380,000 barrels a day down from around 590,000 barrels a day in 2006.

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