Syria awards exploration permits to five foreign companies

Syria's Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said it has awarded exploration permits to five foreign companies and selected three other companies to handle development of existing facilities. Minister Ibrahim Haddad made the announcement.
There were 11 exploration blocks on offer during the 2002 Bid Round opened to foreign companies for oil and gas exploration in Syria under production sharing agreements. The blocks, totalling 63,300 sq km, are located in different petroleum basins where the potential for finding undiscovered reserves is considered high.

Haddad said that Shell was granted a block in the Damascus-Palmyra area, and that Ocean Energy, Stratic Energy, and a consortium of companies led by India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation received other blocks located in the northern and southern parts of Syria.
He added that development contracts have also been awarded for several producing sites in order to increase their production, and that these agreements went to CNPC, a Russian company, and an Irish company. The ministry has yet to finalize all of the contracts, Haddad said, but indicated that the winning companies would be notified.