Allaw : Syria’s oil production fell between 20 and 25% because of the sanctions … No company withdraw

Oil Minister Sufian Allaw said that Syria’s oil production fell by range between 20 and 25%, due to European and U.S. sanctions on oil exports and investment, and denied any withdrawal of foreign companies from the oil sector.

“al-Hayat” newspaper of London quoted Allaw as saying that the production of Syrian oil fell from 380 thousand barrels per day to between 250 and 270 thousand barrels, a rate ranging between 20 and 25% because of the sanctions imposed by the European Union and the United States on oil exports and on investment in the sector. "

The United States and European Union and other several imposed packages of sanctions on Syria because of what they called "the repression of the demonstrators", including the freezing of banning the import of crude oil, and prohibit any future investment in oil, which led to the reluctance of traders and companies from venturing into the Syrian oil sector, according to reports media.

And on the withdrawal of any foreign company from the Syrian oil sector Allaw denied that, saying that "these companies continue to work, but we had to reduce the production of national and foreign companies."

And about the impact of sanctions, oil minister said it was "influenced, which is not a moral being to prevent the export of any oil products from Syria, and hope of finding alternative solutions," noting that "the country’s needs of oil derivatives, secured between domestic production and import, but the suffering remain in export surplus of crude oil to world markets. "

The European markets before the imposition of sanctions, the main partner of the General Petroleum Corporation , accounting for imports of the Union 3.1 billion euros last year, according to European sources, and imported Europe 95% of Syria’s oil in 2010 were distributed to Germany 32% Italy 31% France 11%, Netherlands 9% .

Allaw said, on Thursday, that It had been signed three contracts for the export of large quantities of oil begin implementation during the next month, without explaining those that have been signed with them, as the ministry announced earlier in the signing of contracts with Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran to export oil

The ministry since last March offered an international tender for the work of prospecting, exploration and exploitation of oil and gas resources in the 3 sectors in the territorial waters in the Mediterranean, and the General GPC began last July to receive technical data and access to maritime contracts implemented by other countries as a prelude to the preparation conditions book art commercial and legal.

The modern scientific studies pointed to a huge oil discovery in the Mediterranean basin estimated reserves by 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 107 billion barrels of oil.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Oil, Syria’s oil production fell from 600 thousand barrels per day in 1996 to 400 thousand in 2006 and 387 thousand currently,

al-Hayat Newspaper