Syria exported 600,000 barrels of heavy crude oil on Monday from the port of Tartus, marking the first known official export of Syrian oil in 14 years, according to Reuters.
In 2010, Syria exported 380,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) before the beginning of the civil war that continued for almost 14 years under Bashar Al-Assad’s rule.
After the fall of Al-Assad in December 2024, the new Syrian government led by President Ahmed Al-Sharaa pledged to revive Syria’s economy.
B Serve Energy had bought the heavy crude oil, according to Riyad Al-Joubasi, Assistant Director for Oil and Gas at Syria’s Energy Ministry.
The ministry said in a written statement the oil was exported on the Nissos Christiana tanker.
Located basically in the northeast, most Syrian oil fields are held by Kurdish-led authorities. Those authorities started supplying the central government in Damascus with oil in February.
However, the ties have deteriorated since then over the Kurds’ demand of a decentralized government and Al-Sharaa has rejected this proposal.
In August, Al-Sharaa voiced hope that Syria could avert a military confrontation with US-backed Kurdish forces, even if attempts to integrate their autonomous administration into the state institutions were to fail, according to Al-Arabiya.
Al-Sharaa also stated that Kurdish leaders had expressed their readiness in March to move forward with a landmark deal aimed at bringing their self-administered regions under state authority. However, he noted that their actions on the ground seemed to contradict those commitments.
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