(JNi.media) Russian oil and gas companies are likely to revive their contracts with Syria, totaling $1.6 billion, as soon as investment risks are eliminated and the country becomes stable, Gissa Guchetl, the executive director of the Russian Union of Gas and Oil Industrialists told RIA Novosti.
“If military actions cease and the situation becomes stable in Syria, Russian companies that have frozen their work because of the civil war will be ready to renew their activity within a short period of time in realizing projects that were signed before the crisis with an overall amount of no less than $1.6 billion,” Guchetl said.
This was not a cynical joke at the expense of the Assad government, which has been mired in a bloody civil war since the spring of 2011. Last week, Guchetl met with Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader Halqi and Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Suleiman Abbas in Damascus, and heard from the Syrians that they are interested in Russian companies supplying crude and other oil products to Syria.
The Russians and the Syrians also discussed cooperation with Chinese companies to increase oil and gas digging in Syrian fields which are safe from rebel attacks.