LOC16:20
13:20 GMT
DAMASCUS, Sept 24 (KUNA) -- Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral
Resources Sofian al-Alaw met here Monday with a team of Canada's Dublin
International Petroleum on the latter's development works in Syrian oil fields.
They discussed the company's efforts to develop and increase production at
Ouda and Tishreen oil fields, east of Syria, the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum
said in a release.
The Syrian minister stressed the importance of bilateral cooperation
between Dublin and state-owned Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) in the field of
running reservoirs and setting future production and development visions.
They also discussed Dublin's environmental protection procedures during the
meeting, according to the release.
For their part, the Canadian company's team dismissed as baseless reports
that Dublin would sell off its quota in the development projects of Syrian oil
fields to two Chinese companies.
Meanwhile, Syria has recently signed a deal with another Canadian oil
company for oil exploration in the provinces of Latakia, Hamah, Hims and Idlib.
Under the 20-year agreement, the Canadian company will conduct geological
and geophysical surveys of the targeted areas, and dig exploratory oil wells
within 48 months, during which it will spend an estimated amount of USD 7.5
million.
The Syrian petroleum minister had predicted that the discovery of new oil
fields would enable Syria to maintain its oil production, which slimmed from
600,000 barrels per day in 1995 to 385,000 barrels per day in 2007.
Syria's natural gas output has surged up from 2 million to around 20
million cubic meters per day between 1995 and 2007, with its gas reserves
having stood at 680 billion cubic meters. (end)
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