Iran and Venezuela collaborate to build a new refinery in Syria. Washington will not be happy
Iran has revealed plans to build a new oil refinery in Syria's Homs governorate with a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day (bpd), as part of a memorandum of understanding signed with Damascus and the government of Venezuela.
“A tripartite memorandum has been signed between Iran, Venezuela and Syria for the construction of a new 140,000 barrels of oil per day refinery in Syria,” Jalil Salari, CEO of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC) said this week ) to the state news agency Fars.
“Studies conducted have found that Syria and neighboring countries need oil products, therefore a refinery with a capacity of 140,000 barrels has been identified next to the two existing Syrian refineries in Homs and Bania,” the official added, underlining that the three nations will soon enter the financing and construction phase.
Salari also revealed that the current Homs refinery was repaired by Iranian engineers during a visit by President Ebrahim Raisi in May, and that studies for the new refinery were conducted by a team from the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).
The historic agreement comes despite a brutal campaign of sanctions by the West that has nearly decimated the oil industries of all three nations.
Iran has played a key role in helping both Syria and Venezuela overcome the worst of Western sanctions, providing both countries with technical, material and military assistance.
In June, Caracas resumed work on the El Palito oil refinery, which underwent major repairs and expansion under a €100 million deal signed in May 2022 with NIORDC. Iranian technical teams are also working to restore Venezuela's largest oil refining complex, the Paraguana Refining Center. The plan involves combining Chinese and Iranian parts and equipment in a refinery initially built with U.S. technology.
With the construction of the new refinery in Homs, Iran will also help Syria increase its oil production levels, as the country has lost over $100 billion in revenue since the start of the war due to the destruction caused by Western bombs and an ongoing campaign of oil theft conducted by the US occupation army.
In 2019, former US President Donald Trump explained why Washington intends to maintain occupation of northeast Syria, stating: “We want to bring our soldiers home. But we left the soldiers because we keep the oil…. I like oil. We keep the oil." At least he didn't hide behind hypocritical humanitarian motivations.
According to The Cradle columnist Firas Shoufi, the main objective of the American operation, which involves the transport of Syrian oil to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), is to help the Kurdish Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria (AANES), protected by over 13 US military bases, to finance its activities and cover local fuel needs.
Iran is also fighting fuel smuggling near its coasts, often seizing tankers in the Red Sea carrying stolen fuel.
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The article Iran and Venezuela collaborate to build a new refinery in Syria. Washington will not be happy comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/iran-e-venezuela-collaborano-per-costruire-una-nuova-raffineria-in-siria-washington-non-sara-contenta/ on Sat, 30 Sep 2023 12:00:45 +0000.