TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips have signed a deal with the Syrian Petroleum Company to launch a technical review of the offshore Block 3 area near the Syrian city of Latakia, TotalEnergies said on Tuesday.
The MOU establishes a framework for discussing commercial exploration, and is part of a broader push by Syria's new government to attract foreign investment into the country's battered energy sector after years of civil war and sanctions.
In 2011 TotalEnergies produced 53,000 barrels of oil-equivalent per day in Syria, comprising mostly natural gas, before leaving the country to comply with European Union sanctions.
Syria exported 380,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2010, a year before protests against Bashar al-Assad's rule spiralled into a nearly 14-year war that devastated the country's economy and infrastructure, including crude production.
Earlier, Chevron selected a site for Syria's first deep-water oil and gas project, with technical operations starting this summer.
(Reuters)