Page 10 - MEOG Week 17 2022

MEOG PROJECTS & COMPANIES MEOG

Every month, up to 3mn barrels [100,000 bpd] Syria’s natural gas production by around 40%
of crude oil are extracted from fields in the prov- by 2011. Additionally on the cards at the time,
inces of Al Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.” the government had re-launched a tender in
The ministry added that gas production is late March 2011 for IOCs to bid for offshore oil
running at a rate of 12.5 mcm per day. Of this, exploration and production sharing contracts
79% was delivered to the Ministry of Electric- (PSCs) in the Mediterranean Sea, with early
ity, 15% to the Ministry of Oil and Mineral interest shown by a number of IOCs expressing
Resources and 6% to the Ministry of Industry. interest.
Prior to 2011, IOCs operating in Syria’s Meanwhile, in June 2011, Damascus had
energy sector included: Shell; France’s TotalEn- invited bidders to develop oil shale prospects.
ergies; China National Petroleum Corp. Bell concluded by saying that output from
(CNPC); India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Block 26 could be “significantly increased” by
(ONGC); Canada’s Suncor Energy; UK-based development and further exploration activities.
Petrofac as well as Gulfsands; and Russian He expressed confidence that Gulfsands
oil company Tatneft and engineering firm “can increase production well beyond pre-con-
Stroytransgaz. flict levels – which country-wide were around
More specifically, China’s CNPC and Sinopec 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day”.
were helping to revive output under rehabilita- “We estimate that the Syrian oil and gas
tion contracts for small mature fields, while Shell industry as a whole could produce over 500,000
and Total had been awarded contracts to probe boepd, generating annual gross revenue of over
deeper into existing fields. $20bn at today’s oil prices. Therefore, we believe
Several planned refineries had received the that the oil and gas industry can play a substan-
go-ahead, including the 100,000 bpd facility at tive role in contributing to the early recovery of
Abu Khashab backed by CNPC, and the South Syria in accordance with UNSCR 2585, includ-
Central Gas Area – built by Stroytransgaz – had ing providing humanitarian relief to its people,”
started up by the end of 2009 and had boosted he said.™

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 17 27•April•2022