Senior oil official voiced on Wednesday the country‘s interest to boost petroleum and mineral resource production as well oil refining by building new refineries. According to SANA, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ibrahim Haddad said after the cabinet discussed the ministry's fifth development plan, “the Premier underlined the need to strongly pay attention to the Oil and Mineral Resource production as to disperse worry that appeared during the last few years over oil production decrease.”
The minister stressed the oil and mine sector importance in the national economy. Haddad said he was hoping that Syria would become “an attractive country for investments in the field of oil and gas to international companies and the need to make feasibility study to achieve that."
Since peaking at 590,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 1996, Syria's oil output has fallen, to an estimated 535,000 b/d in 2003, as older fields, especially the large Jebisseh field discovered in 1968, have reached maturity. Syrian oil production is expected to continue its decline over the next several years, while consumption rises, leading to a reduction in Syrian net oil exports.
Sryia's two refineries are located at Banias on the Syrian coast and Homs in central Syrai. Total current production of these refineries is 239,865 b/d and a 107,140 b/d respectively. Syria is planning to reconstruct a third refinery at Deir al-Zour in the Northeast.
