By IRNA
Damascus : Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Sufian Alaw hailed Iran’s cooperation in the field of oil and gas here Monday.
Responding to a question by IRNA, the Syrian minister said, “We have a wide cooperation with Iran in the fields of oil and gas and currently we are constructing an oil refinery in the district of al-Ferqles in the Hamas province with capacity of 140 million barrels annually.”
Speaking on the sidelines of Damascus International Exhibition of Oil and Gas, Alaw said, “Agreement on establishment of the refinery has been signed between Syria, Iran, Malaysia and Venezuela and legal works to announce the joint venture are in process.”
He said Tehran and Damascus have reached an agreement on importing 2 to 3 billion cubic meters gas from Iran.
Also a contract to construct a power plant with the capacity of 450 mega watt has been signed with Iranian company “MAPNA” in the north part of Syria, the minister added.
Syria has 2.5 billion barrels oil reserve and currently its oil production is 385,000 barrels a day of which 150,000 barrels is exported, he continued.
The country also has a 300 billion cubic meters gas reserve and is producing 22 million cm daily.
The 6th International Exhibition of Oil and Gas dubbed as “Syroil 2008” started here Monday with 262 companies from 43 countries and will last until Thursday.