Syrian Oil Output To Reach Pre-Crisis Level No Earlier Than By 2023 - Consultative Council

Syria will see a return to the pre-crisis oil output level no sooner than by 2023 over the damage that the years-long fight between the government forces and the terrorist groups has done to the country's oil sector, Ziyad Arbash, a member of the Syrian ministers' consultative council, told Sputnik on Monday.

DAMASCUS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2018) Syria will see a return to the pre-crisis oil output level no sooner than by 2023 over the damage that the years-long fight between the government forces and the terrorist groups has done to the country's oil sector, Ziyad Arbash, a member of the Syrian ministers' consultative council, told Sputnik on Monday.

The council, established in 2016, provides the ministers with consultations on economy, development and bills preparation, and also conducts research at the request of the country's prime minister.

"The Syrian oil sector will not return to its pre-crisis output level [registered before 2011] until 2023-2024. The recovery of the sector will take at least four or five years from the technical point of view, and there is no sense in putting pressure on it," Arbash said.

He added that the oil fields located in the regions that were controlled by terrorists had been "exhausted" as the terrorists had demolished the infrastructure.

"After the technical and the geological assessment of the oil fields which the government has regained control over, the 'rescue' period will follow, and then we'll be able to bring the output back to a level which would be at least acceptable. Then we will develop fields, and huge investments will be required for developing the output and bringing it back to the pre-crisis level. Syria has significant oil and gas resources, but it won't be possible to use them to the full until 2023-2024," Arbash said.

Ali Ghanem, Syrian oil and mineral resources minister, told Sputnik in October 2017 that oil production in Syria had fallen by 24 times since the beginning of the conflict, dropping from 358,000 to 16,000 barrels per day, while gas production decreased by 1.6 times, falling from 21 million to 13.5 million cubic meters per day.