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Skip Navigation LinksHome :: Back Issues :: Oil outweighs a green revolution

July 2001

Oil outweighs a green revolution





       
Natural gas exploration attracts
multinationals to Syria
One reason why Syria feels that it does not need to move ahead as quickly with economic reforms as some other regional countries is that it still has plentiful natural resources. Agriculture, for example, accounts for about one-third of the economy, and has benefited from major efficiency gains over recent years.
Central Bank governor Bashar Kabbarah is especially effusive in highlighting the progress that has been made in agriculture, describing the accomplishments of the past 15 years as a "green revolution". He says: "Up until the middle of the 1980s we imported food, even wheat. Now, in spite of the increase in the population level, and in spite of the bad weather we've had in recent years, we have an excess of agricultural products. We have 70 million olive trees and we are now producing double the amount of olives and olive oils than we consume. Last year we produced 1.07 million tonnes of cotton and this year we expect to produce even more. And in terms of wheat productivity, we are second only to Australia measured by yield per hectare."
These are impressive statistics, but 70 million olive trees are hardly going to be a linchpin of export earnings or job creation. In terms of foreign currency receipts, petroleum and other energy-related resources are far more significant, and today Syria produces some 550,000 barrels per day of oil, more than 320,000bpd of which is exported, principally to Europe.
Syria began oil production in 1965 with extensive technical and financial aid from the Soviet Union, but it was in 1982 that the sector was opened to much broader international investment and co-operation. The largest of the multinational companies active in this field is Shell Syria, 66% of which is owned by Royal Dutch/Shell, with Deminex of Germany accounting for the remaining 34%. This consortium's joint venture with the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) and Al-Furat Petroleum Company, is comfortably the largest player in the sector, accounting for some 330,000bpd of light crude oil. France's TotalFinaElf is also a significant producer of light crude, and SPC itself accounts for the balance of oil production in the form of heavy crude output of about 180,000bpd.
There is uncertainty about the life of Syria's oil reserves, which is why the government is keen to attract more inward investment into the sector. Another important component of Syria's energy strategy is to intensify its efforts in natural gas exploration, with foreign investors also playing a key role in this sector. Conoco, TotalFinaElf, and Titan Projects of Canada are all examples of multinationals working on natural gas developments aimed at sharply increasing Syria's output.
In other natural resources, Syria currently extracts some 2.5 million tonnes of phosphate annually, 75% of which is exported to Asia and Europe, although it is expected that this will increase in the near future. As recently as last month, for example, Syria's Phosphate and Minerals Company announced that it had discovered what the English daily Syria Times described as a massive 1 billion tonne phosphate reserve in the eastern district.






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