Tatneft, Stroytransgaz operating per usual in Syria
Interfax, 29.03.2011
Russian companies Tatneft and Stroytransgas, which are implementing projects in Syria, are currently operating in normal fashion despite the civil unrest and anti-government protests.
"Tatneft is for now working in Syria in its usual regime," the company told Interfax.
Oil company Tatneft is part of a joint venture with Syria's Albu-Kamal Petroleum Co. This JV began industrial oil production at South Kishma, where the deposit holds 4.9 million tonnes of recoverable oil.
The deposit is being worked at block #27 on the basis of a contract for exploration, development, and oil-extraction on production-sharing terms that Tatneft signed with the Syrian government and the oil company in March of 2005. Block #27 is situated in Southeastern Syria in the province of Deir Ez-Zor at the border with Iraq.
Engineering company Stroytransgas told Interfax that the company's operations in Syria are also proceeding normally.
"We have two offices - in Damask, where a branch is working, and in Homs, were construction management is working. Everything is working in the usual regime," a company representative said. Among the company's workers in Syria are Russian citizens, but he did not say how many.
Stroytransgas has several projects in Syria running concurrently. It is involved in the laying of the Arab Gas Pipeline, building a gas refinery in the Al Raqqa region, and is providing collateral guarantees for the already-built gas refinery at the Abu Rabah deposit.
