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00:00:00Natural gas stages return of main fields, January 17,
00:00:032026. Start
00:00:05to expedite the implementation of this receiving recovered oil fields from January 18 to 19,
00:00:09earlier. This 1300 tons is 2016. Receiving a group of the most prominent fields in Raqqa and Deir
00:00:12ez-Zor in March 2026. Entry into the Al-Hasakah
00:00:16area, and of course you know the settlement that took place east of
00:00:19a percentage of the Euphrates, and
00:00:21to say, "Why didn't we take it as a solution from there were accredited companies in developing fields and wells,
00:00:24unfortunately, within the capabilities that were available to the engineers
00:00:28and technicians who were working there. The reality of the wells and the pipelines is very
00:00:31bad. We used to produce
00:00:33priority in buying oil from this
00:00:34production. They were drilled and brought into operated. 10 new wells were brought into 14,000, on I mean, by the way,
00:00:36the exposure in the statements, how was it 140 and today 1,000 or
00:00:39144? Of course,
00:00:43creates a debt for we used to produce about 14,000 barrels. Of course, guys, it doesn't mean that for example, today I'm saying
00:00:4714,000 or today we are producing
00:00:50Homs, and we changed many 10,000 or 103,000, it means tomorrow it must be 10,000. It could be
00:00:53discussing with many 100,000, it could be 100
00:00:54countries and companies to secure this and 1,000. I mean, a few days ago, when fuel prices were raised,
00:00:57you saw road closures, crude oil stopped for them. The pits we were
00:01:01filling from stopped. Some wells stopped production, production dropped to
00:01:0498,000. So it's natural when I say today my production is
00:01:07989, and the day before it was
00:01:10and other things, such as taking oil 10,800. Today it's 144. So this is not a contradiction
00:01:13in statements. We reached a stage where it was 14,000.
00:01:16We stopped about 70 wells in one of the areas, about
00:01:20170-172 wells in one of the fields due to
00:01:24safety and the safety of the workers there became the large amount of water and due to radioactive materials and due to formation water
00:01:27that used to reach a river called in that area "Death",
00:01:30and it is known to the people of the area because of
00:01:33the radiation. In the Al-Jardha area, in my meeting
00:01:37with some of the dignitaries of the area, they told me
00:01:39gasoline supply. If you remember when there was pressure and there are about 100 cancer cases
00:01:42gasoline stations, we had three gasoline tankers at due to congestion at pollution and the burners and the poor extraction
00:01:46of oil, in addition to excessive extraction and formation water and sand that used to
00:01:49come out with
00:01:516 million cubic meters of
00:01:52that were producing from the oil. Therefore, many wells were closed in order to repair
00:01:55and evaluate them, and then, God willing,
00:01:58involved severe deterioration in we will operate them in a way that ensures occupational safety
00:02:01other countries. I mean, we go 1 million cubic meters of and the safety of our people in
00:02:02gas from Aqaba, from the area. The most prominent challenges in the energy sector are sustainability,
00:02:06production, securing crude oil for
00:02:08and chemicals and spare parts, etc.
00:02:12Of course, we, ladies and gentlemen, so that you are aware, honorable members of parliament,
00:02:16when we entered
00:02:17I mean, we were able to enter Syria, all of Syria's it will be in service in a few weeks.
00:02:206.3 million cubic meters of warehouses were empty, meaning we had no substations, we had no
00:02:23low or high voltage transformers for electricity, we had no
00:02:28vision, is to go towards a contract with valves or spare parts or pipelines or anything
00:02:30that we could use to develop fields or power
00:02:34plants. I mean, today, if a transformer in the Damascus
00:02:37countryside gets damaged, we have to wait to go
00:02:41and buy one, okay, so we can reinstall
00:02:44it. And this is one of
00:02:47energy is no longer a the reasons that some professors, members of parliament,
00:02:50mentioned, regarding why we sometimes go for direct contracts, because if I go
00:02:54and make a tender to buy ten transformers, I will leave a neighborhood for two months
00:02:58without electricity until we conduct the tender, and an external tender takes 50 days,
00:03:01and then bid evaluation, awarding, and so
00:03:03take into account that it would provide us with the full price of this on. So sometimes you are forced to issue a justification memo
00:03:07in order to enter into a direct contract, such as the formation water that
00:03:11world. Many countries in the world, in was about to reach the Euphrates River. We informed the governor of Deir ez-Zor,
00:03:14Mr. Ghassan, who was previously, before the new governor, Mr. Ziad, that water
00:03:17at 300 meters, polluted water, would reach the Euphrates River,
00:03:21it is imports. So we take it to and this would cause an environmental catastrophe for us. Even the United Nations sent some pictures of the problem,
00:03:25so we had to make a direct contract with a company to build
00:03:29tanks and pump water and reinject it into the wells in order to
00:03:32prevent reaching a critical point in the pollution of the Euphrates River,
00:03:36and this will be a very big problem for drinking water and the people
00:03:39in the area. The machinery and services are dilapidated, like
00:03:44are 312,000 cubic meters of other sectors, like other ministries. Some ministries have updated some machinery,
00:03:48with this electricity. We have not reached self-sufficiency buying it in auctions at diesel and 188,000 of and some ministries are still running on we can't find it. The brother who asked about machinery, perhaps the newest car is from 2005, as it was in the Ministry
00:03:52of Electricity. I mean, after the Syrian Electricity Company's cadres
00:03:56and digital transformation, there is no data, no database in Syria, unfortunately.
00:04:00I mean, we took over, you have to go and conduct new studies, and the financial
00:04:05Gas Pipeline, which extends from procedures were also very difficult, and the issue of allocating foreign
00:04:09currency and the Central Bank, and this was a challenge for the ministry in terms of procurement, as
00:04:13are dilapidated, and the people of Aleppo know this one of the honorable members of parliament mentioned. The question about
00:04:16the inventory. The inventory needs
00:04:19million cubic meters. We worked on this line
00:04:19950 megawatts it distributes to money, it needs foreign currency, it needs tank rehabilitation, it needs
00:04:22to buy tanks, God willing, we will mention it, God willing, in the context of
00:04:25the presentation. Developing oil and gas production, as we mentioned
00:04:29earlier, that what started at 7,000 reached a very
00:04:33short period of time, meaning
00:04:35statement. Our oil needs are about our first entry into the region was go back to burning the same amount of 135 to 14,000, then it returned
00:04:39which we were asked about, and stabilized now at about 11,000. It decreases
00:04:42and increases to 112,000, 10,800, 107,
00:04:45depending on the state of the wells, production, and transportation. This is an issue that, God willing,
00:04:49we will discuss shortly.
00:04:52Gas production development also.
00:04:55The rest of Homs refinery works on Gas production was about 6 million cubic meters of gas. Of course,
00:04:58Syria's gas needs are 24. million cubic
00:05:00meters. To operate all our ready
00:05:03stations currently, we need 24 million cubic
00:05:06meters of gas. We will get to that, God willing. Today, we are producing 6 million, meaning
00:05:10a quarter, sorry, we used to produce 6. We raised it to 8.1 after
00:05:14we brought part of the Conoco plant online. Of course, yesterday it was
00:05:178.4. The day we prepared the presentation, the day we started it,
00:05:20from Wednesday and Thursday, it was 8. Yesterday it was 8.4 or
00:05:248.5 million cubic meters. Before that, it reached 9 million, according to the same
00:05:28oil story. Closing wells and bringing new wells into service.
00:05:31Reactivating drilling operations. We drilled about
00:05:344, 484 meters and brought two drilling rigs into service after
00:05:38they were idle and stopped. 21 wells were
00:05:41repaired and 52 wells were
00:05:46production. This is the balance
00:05:49of need, and this is a very important point,
00:05:51the balance of Syria's need. We
00:05:54need about 300,000 barrels
00:05:57of crude oil daily. We need 300,000
00:06:01barrels of crude oil daily to cover Syria's needs.
00:06:04I mentioned previously last year that when the ministry
00:06:08was first established, we had 150,000 barrels.
00:06:11Okay. Meaning it used to cover our needs. We would buy crude oil,
00:06:14refine it in our refineries. Baniyas was operating, and Homs
00:06:18refinery was operating. From the production of the refineries, we would cover the local market. This was
00:06:22when Syria's consumption was 15,000. The entire eastern Euphrates
00:06:25region did not, I mean, did not take oil derivatives from us. Hasaka
00:06:28and Deir ez-Zor, east of the Euphrates, in addition to Raqqa, and in addition to
00:06:32a large part of Aleppo, were not taking oil derivatives from
00:06:36the 15,000 barrels. A part was coming from the eastern Euphrates
00:06:39region to the burners. There were smuggling operations and other things, and this was also
00:06:43not included in our statistics of the 15,000 barrels. We used to say we are
00:06:46refining, we are refining these 15,000. Of course, our needs
00:06:49grew and increased significantly for several reasons. Firstly, these
00:06:53areas entered our areas, meaning they started taking
00:06:57oil derivatives through the ministry, Hasaka, Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa, and so on.
00:07:01Secondly, the stoppage of the burners
00:07:04the oil that was coming to us from the eastern Euphrates region, which
00:07:08was supplying the market, even if by a percentage of five to
00:07:1110%, depending on winter and summer, and so on. The third thing is
00:07:15the growth in demand. I mean, today, the industrial city in Aleppo started with 900 factories,
00:07:19reached 1,500. This needs energy, it needs diesel and fuel for
00:07:22operation. The number of cars that were in Syria
00:07:26in 2025 was
00:07:292.5 million cars. Today, the number of cars
00:07:32is 3.6 million cars. 1.1 million
00:07:35cars increased during this year. All of this is fuel consumption, meaning fuel doubles.
00:07:39Imagine from 2.5 million to 3.6. How big is this gap?
00:07:42It needs to be closed. All of this led to the growth
00:07:45in demand from 15,000 barrels one day, we didn't talk about it, to
00:07:4930,000 barrels. Of course, this 30,000 might decrease a little in spring,
00:07:52okay, meaning it might become 270,000, 280,000. It might
00:07:55reach 325,000 to 350,000 barrels in winter,
00:07:59okay? The average demand is 30,000 barrels.
00:08:02Okay, here I also want to explain a very important issue: Syria's
00:08:06production, the refining capacity of the stations or
00:08:10refineries in Syria, how much? Homs refinery, Baniyas refinery, before
00:08:13the shutdown for comprehensive maintenance, was about 90,000 to
00:08:16100,000 barrels daily, and Homs refinery was about
00:08:1940,000 to 50,000 barrels daily. Meaning we used to produce an average of
00:08:23150,000 barrels daily. We bring 150,000 barrels.
00:08:27Our demand is 30,000 barrels. Part of it is local production, and part
00:08:30of it is imports,
00:08:34the refineries. These refineries refine 150,000
00:08:37barrels for us. The remaining deficit is 150,000 barrels. What do I
00:08:40do? We buy oil derivatives. We buy diesel and gasoline
00:08:44equivalent to 150,000 barrels,
00:08:47equivalent to 100. I mean, if I had the refining capacity
00:08:50of 300,000 barrels, I wouldn't need to buy derivatives. I would buy 30,000
00:08:53barrels or my local production is 10,000 and I buy 20,000, okay?
00:08:57We refine them here, and it covers the market. There's no need to buy derivatives.
00:09:01However, our refining capacity is 150,000 barrels.
00:09:05Therefore, we cannot cover the market's need for oil derivatives
00:09:08without importing diesel and gasoline. Therefore,
00:09:11we will cover this, God willing, after
00:09:15Baniyas refinery returns to operation. Our local production, as we
00:09:18mentioned at the time of preparing this report, was 112,000, so I have a gap of about
00:09:2220,000 barrels, which is buying crude
00:09:26oil. Of course, now we will talk about the issue of contradiction
00:09:29in statements because one of the statements was that Syria exports oil,
00:09:33and a video clip came out at the end showing an oil shipment that left. True,
00:09:37Syria is now said to be producing 100,000 barrels,
00:09:39110,000 barrels. Of these 10,000,
00:09:4380,000 barrels is heavy oil that
00:09:46cannot be refined in Baniyas refinery. Baniyas refinery is designed to refine light
00:09:50oil. We currently produce 20-25,000 barrels
00:09:53of light oil. We take this to Baniyas refinery. Then we
00:09:57buy 100,000 barrels from the market,
00:10:01or a little less, approximately, to operate it at its full capacity. Tomorrow we will buy
00:10:04more, but it became 13,000.
00:10:08heavy oil. So of these 80,000 barrels produced from heavy oil, I take
00:10:12some for Homs refinery. How much do I have left? 30,000
00:10:15barrels. These go and are collected in our warehouses, in our tanks.
00:10:19We keep collecting them until they fill a ship. Then we export them because we
00:10:22don't have enough refining capacity. And these are the same. Now, what I
00:10:25stopped exporting currently, I stopped exporting them. I will take them to the local
00:10:29electrical refineries to produce diesel. Of course, local electrical refineries
00:10:33are not economically feasible and not environmentally feasible, and they cause great harm. Therefore, this
00:10:37step that some honorable members of parliament mentioned, that
00:10:40why didn't you take this step as a solution? Of course, it's easy for someone
00:10:46the beginning?" Someone sent me a video clip saying, "Why didn't you take this as a solution?"
00:10:49This, as one of the members of parliament mentioned, put his finger on the wound, that this
00:10:53issue will cause fraud. When we had a crisis
00:10:56for four days in gasoline,
00:11:00172 violations were recorded
00:11:03at stations. So this will cause fraud, it will cause mixing, and we will have a very
00:11:06big challenge in monitoring. It's not easy for you to introduce three materials. Therefore, we were not
00:11:10going to this option. The second material, which is 150
00:11:14Syrian pounds, we set it. We were
00:11:19type of material. It wasn't, I mean, when we raised prices, no party
00:11:23agreed to export this material. Then, thank God, we were able to secure this material
00:11:26after the prices, and if you only offer improved diesel at
00:11:30115 Syrian pounds in the market, there will only be pressure on it
00:11:33and problems. So when you offer another material, it will relieve pressure on everyone.
00:11:37So this was the solution. We started it from the beginning before
00:11:41pricing, but we didn't find the tools and we couldn't implement it until
00:11:44after we were able, I mean, after we raised the prices of
00:11:48oil derivatives, which is still
00:11:52subsidized, and we will mention the figures, God willing, and what the honorable
00:11:56members of parliament requested, the pricing equation, God willing, we will get to it, God willing.
00:11:59Okay, the gas balance is also the same. Our need is 24 million, our production
00:12:03is 6 million, 8.1
00:12:05currently. The supply is about 8 or 8.4.
00:12:09It varies, about 8.5 million. Let's fix it at about 8.5
00:12:12million. We have about
00:12:16gas, or 6.3, more accurately, it's purchases. We are currently
00:12:19buying gas, 5.3 from the north, from
00:12:22Azerbaijan to Turkey, and we are buying
00:12:27Jordan, from Aqaba. There is a ship there. Anyway, from Jordan. Jordan doesn't have gas,
00:12:31it's imported. So there's a regasification ship that converts
00:12:34liquefied natural gas (LNG) into gas, which is then pumped into
00:12:37the Arab Gas Pipeline. We receive it in Syria, we transfer it to
00:12:41stations, Deir Ali station generates electricity. So I am practically buying
00:12:45gas daily. I am paying, before gas prices rose, we weren't
00:12:49paying this amount. We are currently paying about
00:12:52140 million cubic meters. The
00:12:56140 million dollars is the price of gas for 6.3
00:13:00million cubic meters monthly. This 140 million is the price of
00:13:03gas for generation. 140 million. Of course, part
00:13:07of it was a grant from Qatar, thankfully, but the grant ended in August,
00:13:11and these amounts were 3.2. Half of this gas
00:13:14was a grant and the other half was purchased. Now it's all purchased, we are buying it all
00:13:18and paying for it. That's why when the fuel crisis happened recently
00:13:22and gas prices rose significantly, the Ministry of Finance did not
00:13:28gas. So it will reduce our gas purchases. We might
00:13:32cut two to three million in purchases during the coming period.
00:13:36Of course, this will affect generation, it will affect the number of hours of electricity
00:13:39connection, because the Ministry of
00:13:42Finance does not have the capacity to fund it, because basically
00:13:45we were supplying the treasury with about
00:13:48250 million per month. Okay.
00:13:51As the Syrian Petroleum Company, last month we asked them to
00:13:55cover our deficit. We started paying for gas, and fuel was losing
00:13:59a lot of money. So they said we don't have the ability to cover
00:14:02the deficit. Okay. The Ministry of Finance is saying I don't have the ability to cover your deficit. So I am
00:14:06faced with choices. Either we live in a fuel crisis, that's it,
00:14:09meaning whatever money I have, I go and buy and that's it. We live in fuel
00:14:13crises, diesel and gasoline or I also cut off gas
00:14:16purchases completely. I stop these 6 million completely from the south and from the north. Electricity
00:14:20returns from two to three hours. This 8 million. This is the system that used to be implemented. They would say
00:14:24you know electricity was cheap. How was
00:14:27the system, okay? And electricity is this, this is the solution.
00:14:31That the system used to produce 6 million. Now we are eight and a bit. This is what it sends to power
00:14:35generation stations. This quantity is sent to power generation stations. It burns gas and generates
00:14:38electrical energy. It used to generate 950 megawatts from this gas.
00:14:44people. In winter, they would get one to two hours. When we entered Damascus, they would get
00:14:47two hours of electricity. When we returned, we started
00:14:51buying gas and rehabilitated the stations and increased
00:14:54our production until electricity reached this level. I can stop the gas,
00:14:59gas. Yes, usually I don't have any costs, so electricity
00:15:03remains cheap and subsidized and so on, but this cannot build an energy sector and
00:15:06cannot lead us to a situation because I have cities, we have many
00:15:09industrial cities that we are giving 24 hours of electricity.
00:15:13They consume more than that. They consume about 40% of the energy.
00:15:16Industrial and commercial cities, meaning industrial and commercial consumption is 40% of the energy.
00:15:20So if I reduce this, all the factories that reopened in
00:15:24Syria will close again. A lot, and this will
00:15:26give a very bad impression to industrialists. So instead of economic
00:15:30growth, the graph will not be rising, it will stop
00:15:34or it will go down, because energy is the basis, as we mentioned.
00:15:38For the economy, refineries and refining. We mentioned that Baniyas refinery's nominal
00:15:41design capacity is about 130,000 barrels. Homs
00:15:45refinery, 11,000. Currently, it produces between 30,000 and 40,000. God willing, by the end of
00:15:48the month, by the end of this month, it will reach 50,000. We have a cracking unit
00:15:52with problems. Homs refinery is very old and dilapidated. The Syrian
00:15:56Petroleum Company's opinion from the beginning, when it was established, was to close it because it was not economically
00:15:59feasible. So I was committed to
00:16:02preserving it initially, and then we agreed on this idea of preserving it
00:16:06initially. Because it is an energy security. It can refine the heavy
00:16:10oil we have in Syria in case of crises. Subhan Allah, we fell into a crisis again and found
00:16:14the importance of Homs refinery in its poor technical condition, but it is
00:16:18an energy security for Syria. I will not close it until we can
00:16:21prepare new refineries that cover the local need for
00:16:25petroleum derivatives. The reasons for the maintenance of
00:16:28Baniyas. One of the honorable members of parliament asked me if
00:16:32it was necessary, could we have postponed it? Baniyas's maintenance was already
00:16:35postponed. Its operating system had 99 shutdowns during
00:16:38the revolution. I mean, and specialists know what it means to
00:16:42shut down a facility and restart it, and to shut down a facility that has deteriorated significantly.
00:16:46The regime did not carry out rehabilitation. There were sanctions,
00:16:50and the regime did not carry out rehabilitation. There were no spare parts for the refinery.
00:16:53It was operating in a way that technicians
00:16:57described as a ticking time bomb. And finally, occupational
00:17:02at stake. And finally, they gave me a paper because I postponed it so much due to
00:17:05crisis after crisis. We
00:17:07postponed it so much, hoping that the supply chain crisis and so on would be resolved.
00:17:11They told me, "Please write us a paper stating that
00:17:15you take responsibility for the safety of the workers and the safety
00:17:18of the facility so that we can continue." Otherwise, we cannot continue.
00:17:22No, for us, the safety of the workers and occupational safety and the safety
00:17:25of the facility are our priority. Therefore, we stopped it and made a decision to stop it. It was
00:17:29a purely technical decision, 100%. The design life of many
00:17:33equipment was exceeded. The maintenance
00:17:35the channels. Internally, the refinery did not undergo
00:17:39any maintenance during the past period. Increased probability
00:17:42of breakdowns and shutdowns. Maintenance became necessary to
00:17:46raise its efficiency as well. I mean, it already produces 90,000, why don't I make it
00:17:49130? Okay, it would also reduce my burden. So many reasons
00:17:53led us to stop Baniyas refinery, and we were already late in doing so. We had
00:17:57signed contracts with the company that was supposed to carry out the rehabilitation since
00:18:00the beginning of summer, because maintenance of such facilities is always done in summer, not in winter,
00:18:04to avoid shutdowns and breakdowns. We had to start in summer, but we postponed
00:18:08it hoping that the issue of the Strait of Hormuz and the war in Ukraine and Russia, and so
00:18:12on, and supply routes and supply chains and derivatives would be resolved. But we couldn't, we reached
00:18:15a critical stage, so we stopped Baniyas refinery. And I
00:18:19want to point out here that today the issue of
00:18:24supply chain crisis and routes and the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab Strait
00:18:28and so on. It has become complex. I have a problem with supply and demand
00:18:32on the roads and straits and transit
00:18:34and the supply of materials. This is one problem. Problem
00:18:38two is a refining problem.
00:18:41If you noticed, there is a refining crisis in the world. Russia's refineries were attacked,
00:18:45which used to refine and sell derivatives to the entire
00:18:49Kuwait and the Gulf States, also many refineries were affected, so we have a refining
00:18:53crisis in the world. Therefore, people, there is no connection
00:18:56between the price of Brent oil, which is 103 this morning,
00:19:00103 dollars, and the derivative. What is the price of a ton of diesel today?
00:19:041570 dollars. Imagine, there is no connection between
00:19:07a ton, between the price of Brent barrel and a ton of
00:19:11diesel. Usually, when Brent is 103, 104, 105, how much is a ton of
00:19:14diesel? 1100, 1150, 150. Today
00:19:18it is 1570 because there is a huge demand, so much so that
00:19:22tenders, where are the tenders? We are actually
00:19:25sea. Diesel is currently being bought in auctions. I mean, today
00:19:29the auction opens for this ship. You will find many people asking for it, so this
00:19:33price has risen very sharply. Therefore, today there is a refining
00:19:35crisis. This morning, I don't know if you read the news, Moscow refinery
00:19:39was hit today, and there is no initial report yet on whether the
00:19:43region will also be affected. Also yesterday, Cuba, 9
00:19:47million people, complete blackout due to energy supply issues and the absence of diesel
00:19:50and the absence of oil derivatives and gas. So the crisis is a global
00:19:53crisis. Generally, we might have it a bit easier as we have
00:19:57some local product and the sea route,
00:20:00meaning Syria's location is important for imports, and many
00:20:03sister and friendly countries contribute to the supply issue, meaning they might
00:20:07give us priority in the supply process. Oil movement
00:20:1311 point, meaning 11
00:20:16million or about 12 million liters daily. Let's
00:20:20talk, Subhan Allah. Many people are
00:20:23accustomed to liters. Our need is approximately 1,000 to
00:20:2611,000 tons daily, which is equivalent to 12 million liters daily.
00:20:30This is for diesel. As for gasoline,
00:20:33our need is about 6 million to 7 million tons.
00:20:37Gasoline daily is about 8 million liters daily.
00:20:40The average consumption of fuel is 8500 for power generation stations
00:20:44and industry, which we support. We issued a decision some time ago to support it by 400
00:20:48dollars per ton, even though we import it at 550 and 570. It was
00:20:52more expensive then. The average daily consumption of gas
00:20:56is 1300 tons. This is what we were talking about
00:20:59household gas, LPG, not the electricity gas we
00:21:03talked about earlier. Local production is in front of you, which
00:21:06covers
00:21:09the need, and the rest is a surplus that we import from
00:21:13the market, okay, from the global market through buying
00:21:16either crude oil when Baniyas refinery is ready, or oil derivatives now
00:21:20with the shutdown of Baniyas refinery, or crude oil and oil derivatives. Crude oil operates
00:21:24Baniyas refinery, and I complete the rest of my needs
00:21:27from oil derivatives.
00:21:30Of course, all this
00:21:33the company or securing foreign currency, which is one of the challenges. And I
00:21:36hope you help us with this issue. Today, when
00:21:40we talk about projects and securing an oil reserve
00:21:43and derivatives to avoid falling into crises, we need
00:21:47foreign currency. Our idea is that we are
00:21:51buying, we are buying oil derivatives from
00:21:53the market and crude oil. What do we pay for it? In dollars. What we
00:21:57buy, what do we sell it for? In Syrian pounds. So we
00:22:00collect Syrian pounds. We collect Syrian pounds. Where do we
00:22:04put it? We deposit it.
00:22:07We put it at the Central Bank. So what is the Central Bank's duty now? To secure dollars for us
00:22:11for purchases. So the Central Bank has priorities. It has health
00:22:15and education and defense and
00:22:18interior and so on. So we are one of its priorities, but this
00:22:22is a lower priority for us. This is one of the points that
00:22:25caused delays in
00:22:32sea ready to dock, but we hadn't paid
00:22:35for them. We hadn't paid for them. And this
00:22:38is also a very important issue. It shouldn't be like this. We go with these
00:22:42companies, the tenders that the brother mentioned, that we are buying
00:22:45through tenders and so on. It shouldn't be like this. Most countries enter into contracts with
00:22:51and sign a contract with Saudi Arabia, with Kuwait, with Libya, with oil-producing
00:22:54countries to supply 20,000 barrels of crude oil
00:22:58daily, or 100,000 barrels of light crude oil, in addition
00:23:01to diesel and gasoline, and so on. But we had a problem with sanctions, the effects of which are still
00:23:04felt today. SWIFT,
00:23:07financial markets and financial transfers, in addition
00:23:10to having problems with some of the existing sanctions
00:23:14on Syria. If we now, and this is our
00:23:18friendly and sisterly countries that produce fuel until we achieve self-sufficiency,
00:23:22and God willing, we will get rid of all these crises and problems that
00:23:25the energy sector is going through.
00:23:28So we practically need 831
00:23:32million dollars daily
00:23:33to buy
00:23:36to buy, sorry, monthly to buy oil derivatives and crude oil,
00:23:40831 million dollars, almost a billion dollars
00:23:43to buy oil and oil derivatives.
00:23:46We have worked on regulating the market of oil derivatives and services through
00:23:50the regulatory framework. We established a services regulation department,
00:23:53in addition to establishing a petroleum sector regulation department,
00:23:57which set the policies that Mr. Deputy mentioned.
00:24:00Regarding stations, we issued new standards and conditions for licensing fuel
00:24:04stations. We took into account occupational safety and so on, because we are having some problems
00:24:08and fires, and we took into account the quality of services provided
00:24:11to citizens, in addition to this committee now setting
00:24:14the conditions and standards for licensing power
00:24:18stations. In order to
00:24:22prepare suitable infrastructure for importing electric cars, which would relieve pressure on fuel,
00:24:26but we already have a problem with electricity. I mean, you can use solar
00:24:30energy as an alternative in some locations, but I mean, also, if
00:24:33charging stations need electricity, and we already have a problem
00:24:38in electricity, so it is a complex problem between oil derivatives and
00:24:42electricity, and ultimately, all of these are energy carriers. I mean, we have
00:24:45crises in them. Oil and gas transmission network and regional connection.
00:24:49We have a location. Syria's location is very important. We have an oil
00:24:52pipeline, the Arab
00:24:55Jordan. We are currently getting 1 million cubic meters from it. There is
00:24:58a gap between Homs and Aleppo from the Arab Gas Pipeline,
00:25:02which we are now working through the internal network, even getting it
00:25:055.3
00:25:09and requested price offers, and it is currently
00:25:12under implementation to complete the Arab Gas Pipeline
00:25:15with a financial value of approximately a quarter billion dollars to complete this line.
00:25:19Of course, it will be at the expense of the Syrian Petroleum Company, meaning
00:25:22its budget is not an investment, but rather from the budget of the Syrian company.
00:25:25Also, the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline,
00:25:29is an old pipeline. Its capacity
00:25:32is very low. It is very dilapidated,
00:25:36and its cathodic protection has not been working since the Iraq war. The pipeline
00:25:39stopped. The pipeline is dilapidated. We conducted a technical study
00:25:43for it, and it needs to be completely replaced. Companies entered and signed
00:25:46and we signed the understanding with them, a coalition of companies.
00:25:50because
00:25:54we are a transit country. If we do it from our side and don't get oil
00:25:57from there, what's the point of building this pipeline? The first step will be
00:26:01from our brothers in Iraq. The Prime Minister recently, about a week ago,
00:26:05I read a statement from him directing companies
00:26:08pipeline, and God willing, as soon as they start signing contracts,
00:26:12because these are memorandums, not official contracts, we will be one of the parties to these
00:26:15contracts with these companies. This is also one of the reasons why
00:26:19we did not go for a tender for this pipeline, because it is essentially a coalition of companies that will
00:26:23start from Kirkuk to Baniyas. So it is the same
00:26:26companies that will implement it because we are a transit country. We will
00:26:30take a transit fee, and we might set some
00:26:32conditions that allow us to have
00:26:35pipeline, and the labor and stations and so on.
00:26:38Okay, the restoration of strategic lines and facilities. We have restored, of course,
00:26:42the Baniyas and Homs refineries several times.
00:26:45We rehabilitated them after they were out
00:27:01asked about it. This is very important because the issue of transporting oil
00:27:05in tankers is unhealthy. First, from the corruption
00:27:09that will occur through transportation and theft,
00:27:12from the tanker and filling it with water, some of it ten barrels and so
00:27:16on. In addition to the issue
00:27:18of traffic congestion on the roads, in addition to the issue of
00:27:22the impact on the road itself and its technical condition will be affected. Therefore, it is
00:27:26not healthy. Our heavy oil pipeline, this pipeline, we have
00:27:30more than 1400 violations on it. Meaning, they used to take
00:27:33oil from it. We removed these violations. We have completed
00:27:3780% of it in terms of maintenance and rehabilitation. God willing, in
00:27:40ideal circumstances, because last time we said it should be operational
00:27:44by the end of September,
00:27:47this pipeline. But
00:27:50we found an area with mines, so we contacted the concerned authorities to come
00:27:54and remove the mines for rehabilitation. So you encounter challenges sometimes that
00:27:58you don't account for. You pumped, pressurized the line, and inspected it,
00:28:01but then you find a single mine. The safety of workers is
00:28:05a priority, so you need to form teams from the Ministry of Defense or the Ministry
00:28:08of Emergency to remove the mines. This takes time and delays us by 10
00:28:12to 15 additional days, which we hadn't anticipated. Therefore, God willing,
00:29:08Our active depots in Homs
00:29:12for diesel are about 102,000 cubic meters. Of course, the tanks'
00:29:16technical condition is very poor. We sent a delegation some time ago to Korea.
00:29:19They reminded us there that a Korean company has ready-made tanks, because
00:29:23building tanks can take from one to one and a half years. They said they have ready-made tanks
00:29:27that can be directly transported and installed. So they went to inspect these tanks
00:29:31and study their technical condition. And God willing, once they send us the report,
00:29:34they were in Korea during the past days. Once they send us the technical
00:29:38condition, we might approve and purchase them directly. There are underground tanks in Deir
00:29:42ez-Zor. The total active capacities
00:29:48gasoline. Storage and enhancing supply security, which we were also asked about by the committee,
00:29:52thank you. We have been striving from the beginning to secure
00:29:55a stock, but all our depots, and you all know this, each of you from your governorate
00:29:59knows many of the depots. The best depots we have are in Homs.
00:30:02Some depots are somewhat acceptable, and we have some in Adra and the rest of the depots in
00:30:06the Aleppo countryside, in Khan
00:30:09Tuman, also in Khan
00:30:12al-Asal, in al-Ramouseh, all
00:30:15well. The depots in Idlib that were in Kafr Batikh are also
00:30:19completely destroyed. They cannot be utilized.
00:30:22So many tanks and depots need to be rebuilt and rehabilitated.
00:30:26We have started rehabilitating some of them,
00:30:29but the investment budgets, as we said, cannot sustain everything.
00:30:33Today we have priorities. In the hierarchy of priorities, they tell us the Ministry of Finance to stop
00:30:37revenues to the treasury for a year. Then we will
00:30:40restore everything. But if the Ministry of Finance is asking us, we have increased
00:30:44salaries and wages, and we have investment projects, and you are a very
00:30:48large part of these issues as
00:30:52a petroleum company. So they don't give us a single day's respite in
00:30:55terms of financial transfers, as we mentioned. We used to give them $250 million that.