Explosions on the oil pipeline were organized before the meetings of Nikolai Patrushev in Jerusalem
Syrian state news agency SANA reported, that five lines of an underwater oil pipeline near the city of Baniyas in northwestern Syria were blown up 22 June, what caused the oil spill. Syria's Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources did not provide details of the attack, stated, that the damage will be repaired by experts within a few hours, пишет The Washington Post.
Kirkuk oil pipeline (Iraq) - Banias (Syria) length 880 kilometers is of strategic importance for Syria, and for the whole Middle East. This pipeline is also important for Russia, what they know well in the West. In August 2017 of the year, the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy published a report "Russia's Energy Goals in Syria", which states, that after the defeat of the Islamist militants and the consolidation of the positions of the government of Bashar al-Assad, "Russia has found a new opportunity to strengthen its position in the region". Russian energy companies seek to renew and expand their investments in the Syrian energy sector, but their goal, American analysts note, is not that, to extract oil in Syria, which is not enough there. Russian companies seek to participate in the rehabilitation and operation of the Syrian oil and gas infrastructure, including a significant part of pipelines, liquefaction plants, refineries and terminals. Syria is important for power engineers, first of all, as a transit hub. Wherein, noted in the report of the Washington Institute for Middle East Policy, Russia “is not only expanding its dominance in the Eastern Mediterranean, which she dreamed about after the Caucasian wars of the nineteenth century ", but also strengthens its position in gas supplies to Europe.
From the point of view of oil production, Syria never really mattered much. Syrian oil reserves are 2,5 billion barrels of, that's all 0,2 percent of global reserves, and the Syrian 8,95 billion cubic meters of gas is not enough to meet even domestic needs. However, in 2010 year, the Russian "Tatneft" began development of the South Kishma field near Deir ez-Zor, Where, According to expert estimates, contains 4,9 million tons. AT 2013 year, the Russian company Soyuzneftegaz won a tender for the exploration and development of offshore gas reserves in the block 2 in the territorial waters of Syria, as well as on blocks 12 and 26 close to Syria's borders with Iraq and Turkey. Then military action forced both companies to suspend their activities..
AT 2015 Gissa Guchetl, Executive Director of the Union of Oil and Gas Producers of Syria, said: “When the fighting stops and the situation in Syria stabilizes, Russian companies, who had to freeze their operations due to the civil war, will be ready to quickly resume their operations and fulfill contracts, signed before the war, for an amount not less $1,6 billion US ".
In February 2016 the Syrian delegation arrived in Moscow, where she met with the Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation and the leaders of the oil industry for negotiations on the restoration of the destroyed energy sector of Syria. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said, that his country is ready to offer "every possible incentive" to companies, involved in reconstruction. And in the middle of April 2016 g. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised to provide maximum preferences to Russian companies in the construction and oil and gas fields.
Syria's value as an oil and gas transport hub is beyond doubt. If Russian companies take strong positions in the Syrian energy sector, everyone who wants to transport oil and oil products through Syrian ports and pipelines will have to discuss this issue with the Russian side. As a result, Russian oil companies, as stated in the report of the Washington experts, "Will minimize the competition from Iran, Iraq, Qatar or Saudi Arabia ". Besides, “Russia will have at least partial access to 50,5 billion cubic meters of natural gas exports (annually), what in 5,5 times more, than all the reserves of Syria, and is approximately 27 percent of annual LNG exports in Russia ".
Americans are also worried about, that investment in Syrian energy infrastructure could help protect Russian oil and gas interests in neighboring Iraq. AT 2008 The Russian company Stroytransgaz signed an agreement with the Iraqi government to rehabilitate the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline, which connects the fields, developed by Russian LUKOIL near Basra and Gazprom near Kirkuk, with the Syrian port of Baniyas, located in 35 km north of the logistics center of the Russian Navy in Tartus.
This pipeline transported oil from the northern fields of Iraq to a refinery in Syrian Homs, and from there to the sea terminal in the port of Baniyas, and from Baniyas via underwater lines to the refinery in Deir Ammar, in the vicinity of the Lebanese port of Tripoli. AT 2003 the year during the war in Iraq, the pipeline was disabled as a result of American bombing.
The pipeline rehabilitation project has been postponed until 2011 year because of the war that broke out in Syria. A few days ago, Russian media reported, that Russia has begun to restore the Kurkuk-Baniyas-Tripoli oil pipeline. And the sabotage on the pipeline was organized before the meetings 24 June in Jerusalem, the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev with the Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security John Bolton and the head of the National Security Council of Israel Meir Ben-Shabbat.
The nature of the sabotage excludes the involvement of militants in it. This can only be done by combat swimmers of the special forces of large military powers..
Vladimir Prokhvatilov
