Blog

Syria's severe power shortages have continued throughout the country, also as many towns and cities remain largely destroyed following well over a decade of war. Rebuilding seems nowhere on the horizon as access to global investment and materials has been blocked by Washington.

The post-Assad Hayat Tahrir al-Sham government under Jolani (former AQ/ISIS commander) has just announced a tender to purchase around 7 million barrels of light crude oil, according to a fresh petroleum ministry statement.

The purchase of 7 million barrels of light crude oil is to supply to the Baniyas refinery, Syrian media has specified.

Further, this week has seen limited efforts the ease the population's ongoing petrol woes. State-run SANA announced Tuesday, for example, that ship carrying 5,600 tons of gasoline arrived at the oil terminal of the Syrian Oil Transport Company Syrian Petroleum in Baniyas.

The last several years, as US sanctions have tightened, have seen long lines at gas stations and people having to ration fuel. 

Additionally, cities and households have had to endure the majority of the day with no electricity. Often this is merely an hour of power to homes a day, but there are reports that Damascus this month has improved to several hours of electricity daily.

Baniyas power station, via AP

This bettered energy situation in the capital may be the first fruits of a deal which was struck with Qatar two weeks ago. "Qatar will provide natural gas supplies to Syria with the aim of generating 400 megawatts of electricity a day, in a measure to help address the war-battered country’s severe electricity shortages," as quoted in SANA.

"Syria’s interim Minister of Electricity Omar Shaqrouq said the Qatari supplies are expected to increase the daily state-provided electricity supply from two to four hours per day," AP also reported.

"Under the deal, Qatar will send 2 million cubic meters of natural gas a day to the Deir Ali power station, south of Damascus, via a pipeline passing through Jordan," the report indicated.

It's still unclear what future fate awaits the oil and gas fields of Syria's northeast Deir Ezzor and Hasakah regions. US troops and their proxies – the Syrian Democratic Forces – still occupy these. Pre-occupation Syria drew enough resources from these fields in order to supply domestic needs.

US sanctions have all the while sought to cut off the flow of Iranian or Russian oil to the country. For now Trump appears willing to keep the sanctions in place, even with Assad gone.