How the U.S. and U.K. Are Redrawing Syria's Energy Map
KKR Makes Largest Ever Clean Energy Investment With $4.2B EDF Purchase Simon Watkins is a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author.
He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for… The agreement signed last week between the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), the U.S.’s ConocoPhillips and Great Britain’s Novaterra ConocoPhillips — covering the development of new gas fields and the expansion of output at existing sites — is the latest move in Washington’s and London’s long?game for shaping Syria’s post?Assad landscape.
Rather than repeat the overt, Western?fronted reconstruction model used in Iraq, both countries have opted for a subtler architecture: powerful Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E., take the visible lead, while Western firms and planners operate behind them.
This approach fits neatly into the broader U.S.
effort to re?establish Western influence across the Middle East and to revive the Arab–Israeli normalisation framework that defined Donald Trump’s first term — a framework designed to limit the strategic space available to Russia and China.
The question now is how far this strategy can run, and what Washington and London ultimately intend to build in Syria.
The U.S./G.B.-led early lifting of international sanctions against the previous Russia-backed al-Assad regime signalled the West’s seriousness in rebuilding Syria’s cornerstone oil and gas sectors as part of a broader revitalisation of its economy, by dint of which it can become “stable, unified and at peace with itself and its neighbors”, as delineated in the sanctions removal order.
Before the country’s civil war started in March 2011 as part of the Arab Spring movement, it was a significant crude oil power, with production of around 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) from proved reserves of 2.5 billion barrels.
In fact, before the recovery rate had begun to decline due to a lack of enhanced oil recovery techniques being employed at the major fields, it had been producing nearly 600,000 bpd.
At that time, Europe was importing around US$3 billion of oil per year from Syria, with many of the continent’s refineries configured to process the heavy, sour ‘Souedie’ crude oil that makes up much of Syria’s output, and was exported -- together with its sweet and lighter ‘Syrian Light’ grade -- to Germany, Italy, and France, from one of its three Mediterranean export terminals: Banias, Tartus, and Latakia.Related: Ukraine’s Drone Campaign Forces Russia to Buy Gasoline From India As great as its oil production and exports were, its gas sector was even bigger.
Before the civil war erupted, Syria was producing around 21.9-30 million cubic metres of natural gas per day (mcm/d) and held proven reserves of 8.5 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).
Production is estimated to have declined to just 7-7.6 mcm/d now.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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