DAMASCUS, Syria, May 30 (UPI) -- Oil production in Syria is almost at a halt and natural gas production is down by half because of the war, Syrian Oil Minister Suleiman Abbas said.
The U.S. Energy Department's Energy Information Administration, in a February update to its Syrian profile said oil production was down nearly 60 percent to 153,000 barrels per day as of October. The cost to the oil industry because of the war was around $2.9 billion.
Abbas was quoted by Russian news agency RIA Novosti as saying war has taken a greater toll on the Syrian energy sector.
"Crude oil production fell to 20,000 bpd compared with 380,000 bpd that Syria produced daily before mid-March 2011," he said.
Russia is one of few allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad, keeping its commitment to existing weapons contracts despite the bloodshed.
Abbas blamed "the terror" for the decline in crude oil production. Natural gas output, meanwhile, is down 50 percent from its pre-war level.
The European Union last month authorized oil imports and related investments in the Syrian oil industry "so as to help the civilian population and support the opposition in that country."
The European Union banned the importation of Syrian oil and petroleum products in September 2011.
