Syria.. Start of oil supply from Hasakah and Deir Ezzor to Damascus

Syrian oil ministry spokesman Ahmad al-Sulaiman told Reuters on Saturday that Kurdish-controlled areas in northeastern Syria have begun supplying oil from local fields they operate to the central government in Damascus.

This is the first known handover from oil-rich northeastern Syria to the new government that took power after the ouster of the Assad regime last December.

Al-Sulaiman said the oil was from fields in the provinces of Hasakah and Deir Ezzor, but he did not provide further details on the quantity of oil supplied or any other terms of the agreement.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have entered into talks with the new Syrian administration in Damascus over a possible deal that could lead to their integration into a unified Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces said that last Monday it held its regular coordination meeting with both the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria and its political wing, the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC).

She added that she stressed in the meeting the importance of dialogue with the government in Damascus, after news of its decision to merge its forces with the Syrian army and reactivate state institutions.

Domestic oil trade
The United States issued a six-month sanctions waiver in January allowing some transactions in the energy sector, and the European Union is set to suspend its energy, transport and reconstruction sanctions.

Several trade sources told Reuters that Syria is seeking to import oil through local brokers after its first tenders for imports after the fall of Assad did not receive clear interest from major oil traders due to sanctions and financial risks.

The internal oil trade is also a key part of the talks between Kurdish-controlled areas and the new authorities in Damascus, which want to bring all of Syria under central government control.

Sources said the SDF would likely need to give up control of oil revenues as part of any settlement.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said last month that his forces were open to handing over responsibility for oil resources to the new administration, provided the wealth was distributed fairly across all provinces.

Before the revolution, Syria was an oil exporting country with a high degree of self-sufficiency in petroleum products. The new management of the oil sector in Syria faces major challenges in rehabilitating the oil fields and restoring production to its previous levels.

According to the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Syria's production in 2011 amounted to about 380,000 barrels per day, of which 238,000 barrels were refined locally, and the remainder was exported with an annual revenue of about $3 billion.

After 2012, production became 140 thousand barrels as an average production, which is the last official statistic published by the deposed Assad regime, and this made Syria need about 200 thousand barrels per day.

Syria's proven oil reserves are estimated at 2.5 billion barrels in the latest statistics for 2015, according to the American Energy Magazine. Syria has 3 ports for export and import on the Mediterranean Sea: Tartous, Latakia and Banias.

(Al Jazeera + Reuters)