Oil & Gas

Opec announced yesterday it will reduce its crude oil output by 1.5 million barrels per day for six months starting January 1, under a rare and tough deal with rival independent oil producing nations.

Syrian crude oil exports for January are down versus this month, but the jury is still out on whether supplies continue to flow full-force through a pipeline from Iraq, industry sources said yesterday.

Syria produced 1.38 million metric tonnes of phosphate during the first 10 months of the year, according to the director of the Phosphate Mines Company in Palmyra, central Syria.

A report estimates that Iraq's oil exports through Syria, carried out without a UN approval, continued at a rhythm of around 222,000 barrels of oil per day.

Syria and Lebanon are signing today an agreement for the sale and transport of Syrian gas to a Lebanese power station, said Al-Mustaqbal.

In an interview to Al Hayat, Khaled al Mahayni, the Syrian minister of finance said that revenues from oil will make up 50.2% of the state expected revenues for next year.

According to industry sources, Syria's hefty oil export plan for December shows that around 150,000 barrels per day of unauthorised Iraqi crude is still displacing domestic production in refineries, reported Zawya.

Iraqi oil minister Amir Mohammad Rasheed told Al Rafidain newspaper that Iraq and Syria could announce the companies chosen to build a 1.4m bopd pipeline by the end of the year, reported Al Quds.

President of the Royal Dutch /Shell Oil Group, Yuron Van Der Vir recently met with top-level officials in Damascus to discuss the possibility of future oil excavation projects in Syria reported Al Bawaba.

The Ministry of petroleum and mineral resources has offered several new investment projects in the extraction and production of its mineral resources, reported Al-Quds.

Several large oil traders have expressed their doubts on the capacity of Syria to keep its current oil exports level, said the Lebanese daily Al Mustaqbal.

Cyprus' Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Nicos Rolandis will pay a one-day visit to Cairo on Friday for talks on the supply of natural gas from Syria and Egypt, said the Cyprus News Agency.