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Syria exported 600,000 barrels of heavy crude oil on Monday from the western port of Tartus, the country’s first official crude shipment since 2011, the Energy Ministry announced Tuesday.
The crude was loaded onto the tanker Nissos Christiana for delivery to trading company B Serve Energy, a ministry official told Reuters.
The Energy Ministry said the shipment was part of plans "to strengthen Syria’s presence in foreign oil markets" and that more exports are scheduled in the coming months.
Syria had already resumed limited petroleum exports earlier this year from the Baniyas refinery, located north of Tartus, sending an initial 30,000 metric tons of refined products abroad.
The government has also signed an $800 million memorandum of understanding with Dubai-based DP World to develop and operate a multi-purpose terminal at Tartus.
The deal replaced an earlier agreement with a Russian operator that was canceled after Assad’s departure.
Syria’s oil industry collapsed after the conflict that began in 2011, when the country produced nearly 380,000 barrels per day.
By 2023, output had dropped to about 40,000 barrels per day.
Before the war, oil accounted for roughly one-fifth of Syria’s gross domestic product, half of its exports, and over 50% of government revenue.
Many fields changed hands during the conflict, and Western sanctions blocked official exports, forcing the country to rely heavily on oil shipments from Iran.
After the U.S. administration lifted sanctions on Syria in June, international firms have begun to develop plans for exploring and extracting Syrian oil and gas.
Syria held an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of petroleum reserves, according to the latest available study by the Oil and Gas Journal in 2010.
Most of these reserves are located in the eastern Deir ez-Zor Governorate near the Iraqi border and along the Euphrates River, while several smaller fields are situated in the central parts of the country.
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