Syria hopes to reverse the trend toward declining Oil exports through intensified oil exploration and production efforts, plus a switch from oil-fired to natural-gas fired electric power plants. Syria also has opened up new blocks for oil and Natural Gas exploration, with the Oil and Mineral Resources Ministry receiving bids from several international companies in December 2001 on five exploration areas. Awards for these blocks were made in January 2003, with Shell receiving exploration rights in the Damascus-Palmyra area and Indias ONGC Videsh receiving another onshore block. Independents Ocean Energy and Stratic Energy also received awards. In 2003, three new exploration deals were announced, with companies receiving awards including Canadas Tanganyika and PetroCanada, Chinas CNPC, and Devon Energy and Gulfsands Petroleum of the United States. Another round of awards took place in January 2004, with companies involved including U.S. independent IPR Transoil, Indias ONGC, and Croatias INA Naftaplin. In May 2005, Gulfsands Petroleum purchased Devon Energys 80 percent stake in Block 26, then sold a 50 percent stake in the project to Soyuzneftegaz of Russia. Gulfsands remains as Operator of the project with a 50 percent ownership stake. INA Naftaplin reported a discovery of oil at the Jihar field in September 2004, which it expects to produce 5,000 bbl/d once it is developed.
Syrias main oil producer is al-Furat Petroleum Co. (AFPC) a joint venture established in 1985 and owned by the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), Shell, and PetroCanada. AFPCs fields are located in the northeastern Syria -- particularly the Deir ez-Zour region, where commercial quantities of oil were discovered in the late 1980s -- and are producing about 350,000 bbl/d of high quality light crude.
AFPCs main oil field is al-Thayyem, although production there has been declining since 1991. Another important field -- Omar/Omar North -- began production in February 1989 at 55,000 bbl/d. Shortly thereafter, operator Shell was pressed by the cash-strapped Syrian government to step up production (against Shells advice) to 100,000 bbl/d. The result was serious Reservoir damage, and in April 1989, output plummeted to 30,000 bbl/d. Currently, Omar produces about 15,000 bbl/d from natural pressure and 30,000 bbl/d from water injection. Other AFPC fields include al-Izba (light oil), Maleh (34o API Gravity oil), Sijan, and Tanak. Production from fields run by SPC peaked in the late 1970s at more than 165,000 bbl/d.
SPCs fields include: 1) Karatchuk -- Syrias first discovery, located near the border with Iraq and Turkey; 2) Suwaidiyah -- a giant heavy oil field located south of Karatchuk in the Hassakeh region (and extending into northwestern Iraq) which currently produces around 85,000 bbl/d; 3) Jibsah -- a major field producing both oil and gas; 4) Rumailan -- a small field near Suwaidiyah which produces heavy oil; and 5) Alian, Tishreen, and Gbebeh -- three small, depleting fields producing heavy oil. Chinas CNPC signed a contract with SPC in March 2003 to undertake an enhanced oil recovery project for Gbebeh, which is to increase production from the current 4,500 bbl/d to 10,000 bbl/d.
Other Syrian oil fields include Maleh, Qahar, Sijan, Azraq, and Tanak. Jafra, discovered in late 1991 and located near Deir ez-Zour, is operated by TotalFinaElf and has current production of around 50,000 bbl/d. Besides conventional oil reserves, Syria also has major shale oil deposits in several locations, mainly the Yarmouk Valley stretching into Jordan.
Oil exploration activity in Syria has been slow in recent years due to unattractive contract terms by SPC, poor exploration results, and concerns about the possibility of additional U.S. sanctions. For these reasons, only a few companies out of more than a dozen operating in the country in 1991 remain in Syria at present. The recent bid rounds are an attempt to reverse this trend, but it is unclear how successful this will be. Officials of TotalFinaElf publicly expressed their intention to scale down their Syrian operations in May 2002, and ConocoPhillips announced in February 2004 that it was ending its operations in Syria.