Rationale of Syrian gas tender with Russians: document

Translation by Yusra Ahmed

 (Zaman Al Wasl-Eqtsad)- Leaked document shows no international interest in Syrian Gas A document leaked from the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Syria shows some details of events preceded signing the contract with the Russian company to drill oil and gas in the Syrian coast.

The document Zaman al-Wasl and Eqtsad obtained is very important as it was forwarded from the Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, to the Minister of the Presidency Affairs, and to Bashar al-Assad subsequently.

The Document was sent on October 2013, and stamped as “secret”, 2 months prior to signing the contract with the Russian company Viooz Nafta Gas.

The document was important because it showed the lies about the propaganda the regime relied on to convince the Syrian people of the global conspiracy against Syria. As the regime’s media kept saying that huge amount of gas was discovered in Coastal region in Syria which led the great countries and the United States to support the Syrian revolution to find a way to control the oil and gas resources.

the surprising fact the document showed that announcement to draw offers and bids from leading petroleum and gas companies in the world to drill and extract it from the coast, did not attract any company till the announcement’s deadline over a period of 9 months.

Moreover, even the Russian leading companies in oil and gas extracting and refinery industry, did not show any interest in Syrian gas even via direct communications, as the Ministry had sent 24 direct messages to petroleum companies.

Days after closing the bids' offers, the Russian company Vioos Nafta Gas contacted the Ministry to offer its will to drill and extract gas from two blocks in the sea.

The fact the document showed could be shocking to the regime loyalists and supporters, as no leading company showed interest in the Syrian gas, either because it was not of good quality, or no company would risk initiating the job of extracting oil and gas in unstable country. In both cases, the document stripped the regime and showed lies it relied on to convince its supporters of its own story about the backgrounds of the Syria revolution.

Furthermore, even the Russian company Viooz Nafta Gas was not internationally recognised as first rank in petroleum industry, like the two Russian gas companies: Gasprom and Rosneft oil and gas, besides it was not qualified for gas drilling and extraction from the sea, and the ministry discovered that and requested the company to provide the higher contracting committee all required documents of qualification.

The Russian company provided the ministry with documents with proofs of cooperation with “SSC International drilling LTD”, but once again the contracting committee discovered that both companies were not qualified in drilling gas and petroleum.

The document ended informing Bashar al-Assad with the fact of the qualification of the Russian company. Besides that the Ministry worked hard to find a company to contract with, as they met with the Russian and Chinese Ambassadors to talk about the matter, besides contacting the Syrian Ambassadors in Russia and China to communicate with the petroleum companies to find contractors.

Till two months prior to signing the contract with the Russian company, it was not found qualified for drilling gas according to the Higher Contracting committee in the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources. Despite that, the Syrian regime signed the contract with the company.

Reasons behind signing the contract for 25 years were not known, however, many found that regime wanted to achieve political goals help it in the propaganda to show its supporters and loyal that the country has gas and oil treasure.

Source inside the Ministry of Petroleum explained that the contract with the Russian company was just for drilling and searching, not for extracting, which means that the company would not start working soon contradicting what the minister of petroleum said.

Information showed that Syria has huge amount of gas in the coast and under the sea, as Oil and Gas magazine declared that stand-by amount of gas in the Mediterranean Sea reached to 2.5 Billion barrel.