After eleven years of war and the imposition of international sanctions, the state funds are empty, undermining the functioning of this strategic sector.
by Hélène Sallon (Beirut, correspondent)
An exceptional ten -day leave was given to Syrian officials for the holiday season. Shops and industries reduce their activities. Centers belonging to the Syrian telecommunications company have been temporarily put out of service. For a month, fuel shortages have extended into areas under the control of the Bashar al-Assad regime and gradually paralyze life and the economy.
“The situation in Damascus is now as in the other cities of the country: we have an hour of electricity then five hours of cut. It has become almost impossible to obtain fuel oil for generators or gasoline for Vehicles, except at exorbitant prices on the black market, which led to generalized paralysis. The government says that it is because of the American sanctions, “says a Damascene who requested anonymity.
“The worst crisis that the country has known”
After eleven years of war and the imposition of international sanctions, and while the national currency unscrews, state funds are empty, undermining the functioning of this strategic sector. “It is the worst crisis that the country has known, more important than during the years of open conflict, where informal supply circuits existed. Or there are no more currencies to pay the oil supplies of Iran and gas from Algeria, the authorities do not want to spend their currencies in order to curb the collapse of the Syrian book “, which has reached a historic 6,000 pounds for a dollar to the black market against 47 pounds for a dollar before 2011, comments the Franco-Syrian economist Samir Aïta.
Before the start of the war, Syria exported part of its reserves, estimated at 2.5 billion barrels of oil. Most hydrocarbon deposits are in areas that now escape Damascus control, in the east of the country, administered by Kurdish forces. The supplies from this region are erratic. Production in the deposits of the center of the country, under control of the regime, satisfies only one tenth of the demand, estimated at 200,000 barrels per day. Most of the oil is imported from Iran, which has renewed a line of credit to the Syrian regime in May
Iranian supplies have dropped, from 6.76 million barrels per month in the first quarter of 2022 to 2.63 million in the third quarter, according to the independent site Tankertrackers. Damascus authorities have announced that these supplies have been suspended since September. The Tankertrackers site, however, observed, in the fourth quarter, the import of around 71,244 barrels of oil per day from Iran, levels far below the demand. “The Syrian government is unable to finance fuel supplies, and Iran is not about to continue to finance it on credit forever,” said Karam Shaar, an economist at the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks.
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