An observer monitoring the oil production data announced by the Syrian regime officials, would directly notice the significant decline in the production of these data over the past year. The decline comes in contradiction to the statements of government officials about the improvement of the oil situation since the regime forces took control of new areas in Syria.
In the summer of 2016, the regime’s new oil minister announced that Syria's production of oil was close to 10,000 barrels per day. In his most recent statement several days ago, he said that oil production fell below 7,000 barrels per day because the cost of transporting and refining the oil outweighed the value of the oil by several times. In other words, oil production in Syria is halted.
According to observers, the regime can no longer consider that it has oil fields in the north. The regime must forget the oil fields in Kurdish forces controlled areas in the north-east of Syria. It must also forget the oil fields the American forces are taking control of from the Islamic State forces in Deir Ez Zor. The American forces have begun building military basis close to the oil fields in the area with the aim of gaining complete control of the oil fields following the expulsion of the Islamic State.
Observers confirmed that the American forces will not hand over these fields to the Syrian regime, but will use the financial revenue from the oil production to finance the establishment of an autonomous region in al-Raqqa province after its liberation. The autonomous region is expected to be governed by the tribal leaders and QSD forces.
Based on its forecasted changing access to oil, the regime is searching for new oil discoveries as studies suggest that oil may exist in the coastal area. Russia has repeatedly said it plans to explore for oil in Latakia’s coast.
It is noteworthy that Syria’s oil production was around 370,000 barrels per day before 2011
