Syria urges oil companies to resume operations

ISTANBUL

Syrian Oil Minister Ghiath Diab called Wednesday on oil companies that had operated in the country to return and develop the energy sector.

"We are confident that Syria, with its rich resources and the determination of its people, will regain its position in the energy sector and overcome all current difficulties and challenges," he told the state news agency SANA.

Diab welcomed a recent decision by the European Union to lift sanctions on Syria partially.

On Monday, the EU suspended sanctions imposed on Syria's energy and transportation sectors and removed the Syrian Civil Aviation Authority and four banking institutions from the list of entities subject to asset freezes and economic restrictions.

The Syrian minister said the EU decision was “in line with the historic developments witnessed in Syria following the fall of the former regime.”

The EU’s removal of sanctions “is a positive step towards building the country's national economy and enhancing stability in Syria," he added.

In response to the Bashar al-Assad regime's brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protests, the EU, the US, the UK and other countries imposed tightened restrictions on Damascus that crippled Syria’s economy.

The country’s oil resources are primarily located in two main regions: the northeast, particularly Al-Hasakah, and the east, stretching along the Euphrates River to the Iraqi border near Deir ez-Zor, with smaller oil fields in southern Raqqa.

Gas resources, meanwhile, are mostly found in the central regions extending toward Palmyra (Tadmur).

Assad, Syria’s leader for nearly 25 years, fled to Russia on Dec. 8, ending the Baath Party’s regime, which had been in power since 1963.

The next day, Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader of the new Syrian administration, who was appointed president on Jan. 29, tasked Mohammed Al-Bashir with forming a government to oversee Syria’s transitional period.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar