The Homs Oil Company (Mahrukat) announced on Tuesday, June 17, the operation of the 6-inch line for transferring petroleum products from Homs warehouses to Hama warehouses, with a capacity of 2,600 cubic meters per day of oil derivatives.
Yahya al-Taleb, the director of the company’s branch, confirmed that the restart of the line after a 14-year halt achieves flexibility in dealing with supply crises and ensures the availability and distribution of petroleum products, reducing costs previously incurred from transport by tankers, as was the case in the past, according to the Syrian news agency (SANA).
Al-Taleb explained that activating the line plays a vital and strategic role and achieves sustainability in transporting petroleum products from the warehouses in Homs to those in Hama in the initial phase, and then to the warehouses in Aleppo and Idlib in the next phase, thereby increasing storage capacities by incorporating new warehouses into operation in these provinces.
He pointed out that the reopening of the line represents one of the essential steps in reviving the deteriorated economic infrastructure under the previous regime.
For his part, Muhammad Amin al-Daher, head of the pumping stations department at Homs Oil Company, said that the technical teams carried out maintenance work on the oil transfer line, which is 56 kilometers long between Homs and Hama, within two weeks.
Al-Daher noted that the maintenance work included pipes, valves, pumping units, and mechanical arrangements. He explained that the total length of the line connecting Homs, Aleppo, and Idlib is 180 kilometers.
The oil transfer line between the provinces of Homs and Hama was blown up in the al-Houla area in 2012. At that time, the Syrian news agency (SANA) reported that the targeted line, which belongs to the Homs Oil Company and is 20 inches in diameter, supplies diesel fuel to Hama province.
Additionally, many oil and gas transfer lines in Homs and various regions in Syria have been bombed during the war, with key gas pipeline lines targeted in Damascus and Homs in 2014.
Meanwhile, the oil line extending from Homs to Tartus was also targeted, leading to its shutdown in 2014.
The explosion occurred near the town of Tal Kalakh in eastern Homs, with its echoes felt in Wadi Khaled, located on the Lebanese-Syrian border.
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