Petroleum Minister: Damaged oil pipelines in al-Zara repaired
Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Sleiman al-Abbas said maintenance teams have finished repairing all damages to pipelines transporting petroleum products in al-Zara area in Homs province, and that the gas pipeline will be repaired within hours.
During a visit to al-Zara on Wednesday, al-Abbas said the maintenance teams began repairing the damage caused by terrorism to the pipelines and associated facilities as soon as the Syrian Army restored security to the area.
He noted that area contains five pipelines that transport heavy and light oil, petroleum products and naphtha in addition to the gas pipeline estimating the damages caused by terrorists’ vandalism at SYP 300 million taking into account the cost of spilled petroleum and burned gas lost during the terrorist bombings.
Al-Abbas said the repairs will provide a degree of stability to the electric power grid as the gas pipeline will supply power station in Banyas.
The Minister also inspected damages caused to a pumping station tanks due to a terrorist attack, estimating the damages caused to the station at around SYP 100, lauding the efforts of maintenance crew whom he described as “unknown soldiers stand in the same trench with the Armed Forces.”
Later, al-Abbas visited Banyas Refinery and the gas cylinders refilling department at the Coastal Gas Bottling Company.
The Minister said the government is exerting great efforts to provide local market’s needs of petroleum products and that Banyas Refinery is currently operating at an 80% production capacity.
