State-owned Syrian Petroleum Co. plans to more than double crude production in a year and ramp up oil refining as foreign operators return, according to Chief Executive Officer Yousef Qiblawy.
The company expects oil output to increase to about 250,000 barrels a day by the end of 2027 from about 110,000 barrels a day now by investing in existing fields, Qiblawy said in an interview. It’s aiming for further expansion by the end of the decade if exploration efforts are successful, he said.
Those ambitions depend on Syria’s ability to mobilize the money, equipment and expertise needed to rehabilitate its fields and infrastructure after more than a decade of war. The country’s oil and gas industry, which collapsed during the conflict, is slowly recovering, and the government is courting international investors including ConocoPhillips, Chevron Corp. and TotalEnergies SE.
Syria has two oil refineries, at Baniyas and Homs, both of which have suffered years of war damage and underinvestment. The Baniyas plant is undergoing extensive maintenance and will be able to process 130,000 barrels a day, up from 80,000 a day, once it’s completed later this month, Qiblawy said on the sidelines of the Energy Intelligence Forum in London this week.
Maintenance at the Homs facility will start in January or February and is set to raise processing capacity to about 70,000 barrels a day from roughly 45,000 barrels currently, the CEO said. The government is also aiming to build several more small refineries.
For now, Syria is relying on foreign shipments of crude and petroleum products to meet demand. The nation needs around 200,000 tons of diesel every month and most of it will be delivered by Saudi Aramco, Trafigura, Vitol and other major trading companies.
“My vision is to deal with trusted big names in terms of supplies to Syria,” he said. The first ship with diesel from Saudi Aramco arrived in Syria on Tuesday and the second was set to arrive a day later as part of “a long-term agreement,” Qiblawy said.
As for Trafigura, the trading house sent Syria a ship with gasoline from Houston last week, according to Qiblawy. “This is the first ship coming from the US since Syria emerged as an independent country,” he added.
Saudi Aramco, Trafigura and Vitol declined to comment.
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