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ABU DHABI — Companies from China, France and Russia are bidding to construct oil refineries worth $4.4 billion to process crude oil from Iraq, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Dardari told a news conference on Nov. 9. Dardari, responsible for Syria's economy, said France's Total would submit a formal offer to construct an $800-million refinery having a production capacity of 70,000 barrels per day.
"There is no reason why Syria shouldn't refine crude oil that's imported from Iraq," Dardari said along the sidelines of the Arab Business Conference in Manama.
Is Syria importing crude from Iraq again? That's news to me. I thought that the spigot was shut off after the invasion.
Dardari said Syria has signed a memorandum of understanding with China for the construction of another oil refinery with a capacity of 140,000 barrels per day and worth $1.2 billion. The minister said Damascus was also negotiating with Russian private investors for a third refinery having a production capacity of 140,000 barrels per day as well as a petrochemical complex. He said the two projects were worth $2.4 billion.
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