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Syria’s largest oil refinery has halted operations after ceasing to obtain the crude from Iran that beforehand made up the overwhelming majority of the nation’s enter, its normal supervisor advised the Monetary Occasions.
Baniyas oil refinery, which processes between 90,000 and 100,000 barrels of crude a day, produced its final batch of petrol on Friday, mentioned Ibrahim Mousallem, following the autumn of Iran-backed former president Bashar al-Assad.
“We’re solely doing upkeep that takes a brief period of time in order that we’re prepared for when crude oil is made obtainable,” he added.
Mousallem mentioned members of Syria’s new management — staffed by figures from the Salvation Authorities that dominated a insurgent enclave in north-west Syria for years — advised him they anticipated a elimination of sanctions on the nation, permitting Syria to import oil from non-Iranian sources and likewise enabling the refinery to buy components for its gear.
“They mentioned, God prepared, the sanctions might be lifted and it is possible for you to to buy spare components,” he mentioned. He added that “there’s a respectable quantity [of fuel] in storage” and “the state of affairs is secure”.
The brand new interim authorities was put in place by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), an Islamist group that’s designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, EU, UN and others. Regardless of the designation, western governments have already begun participating with the group’s leaders. Individually, the Syrian state can also be topic to wide-ranging western sanctions.
Oil shortages are a significant problem dealing with the interim Syrian authorities because it tries to maintain fundamental providers functioning and begin to revive the war-ravaged economic system.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken mentioned on Saturday {that a} scarcity in gas was one of many “instant wants that I believe need to be addressed . . . in order that the lights may be turned on, in order that the shops may be opened, so folks can get round”.
Iran propped up Assad’s army forces and the economic system for years, extending a line of credit score to the Syrian state to purchase Iranian oil and bypass US sanctions on the Syrian authorities.
However following Assad’s ousting, the brand new management should safe new offers to produce an already beleaguered nation with essential oil and fuel, particularly as winter approaches. Syria has one different refinery, with much less capability, in Homs.
Lately underneath Assad, Syria imported 90 per cent of its crude from Iran, with the remaining 10 per cent coming from oilfields in Syria, Mousallem mentioned.
The brand new authorities was exploring importing each crude oil and its derivatives, Mousallem mentioned. He added that petrol stations had initially been instructed to make use of up their reserves to make sure the stream of gas didn’t cease in the course of the transition interval, however these reserves had already been replenished.
Syria as a complete is experiencing an acute electrical energy scarcity, ensuing primarily from a scarcity of gas to function energy crops. The exception has been Idlib, the stronghold of HTS, which receives energy from Turkey. An official within the interim authorities advised the FT earlier this week that energy traces from Turkey had been already being prolonged to town of Aleppo.
Baniyas refinery had been including to its retailer of oil merchandise since 2020, Mousallem mentioned, in anticipation of a upkeep mission requiring a two-month pause in operations.
He described longstanding issues on the refinery that wanted addressing, reminiscent of a dilapidated chimney and injury from an earthquake in 2022. The refinery is hastening alongside smaller upkeep tasks because it waits for a brand new crude cargo. “However the machines can’t cease for too lengthy, which might trigger corrosion,” he mentioned.
Between 2017 and 2020, the refinery was typically pressured to halt operations for so long as two months within the absence of oil shipments, he mentioned.
Mousallem mentioned Syria’s new authorities, put in place after HTS seized management of a lot of the nation final week, promised to extend salaries for public sector workers by 300 to 400 per cent. Wages for presidency workers in Syria quantity to roughly $25 a month, forcing them to take second and even third jobs or depend on funds from kinfolk overseas.
He mentioned representatives of the brand new authorities had been “listening, and never saying a lot” of their conferences, as they try to study the technicalities and internal workings of the previous regime’s establishments.
