Bombs damage a Syrian underwater oil facility off Syria’s coast causing pump failures. The facility serves two of Syria’s petroleum refineries.
No one claimed responsibility for the attack, the third to target Syria’s oil and gas industry in less than a year.
NO COUNTRY CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY
Any country active in the region could have carried out the attack to include the United States, Turkey, Israel, or Saudi Arabia. All consider Assad to be an illegitimate ruler. The majority of Syrians consider him a terrorist whose family hijacked Syria by force.
The attack off the coast of Banias on the Mediterranean shoreline in the Tartous province.
Oil minister Ali Ghanem told state TV that the bombs were planted by divers in the facility used to pump oil to the coast. He said the facility is 2 miles off the coast and is 70 feet underwater.
Ghanem said:
The aim of the attack is to cease (oil) imports into Syria.
He added that the ministry’s experts are evaluating and fixing the damage. He said the attack will not stop imports as the ministry had prepared plans in case of such attacks.
Last month, near-simultaneous drone attacks struck three government-run oil and gas installations in central Syria. One of the December attacks targeted the oil refinery in the central city of Homs. No one claimed responsibility for this attack either.
Syria has suffered fuel shortages since last year. Western sanctions have blocked imports, while most Syrian oil fields are controlled by Kurdish-led fighters in the country’s east.
In June, sabotage attacks damaged five underwater pipelines off Banias.
Before the Syrian conflict erupted in 2011, the country exported around half of the 350,000 barrels of oil it produced per day. Now its production is down to around 24,000 barrels a day, covering only a fraction of domestic needs.
AP contributed to this article.
COMMENTS