Damascus – Syria’s geographical location constitutes an important link for international trade routes between East and West, and a crossing point for potential oil and gas projects from the south to Europe, passing through Turkey, which is adjacent to it with a border strip extending about 800 kilometers in length.
In addition to its geopolitical importance, which the West saluted after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the transformation of the Levant into areas of influence shared by Britain and France at the beginning of the twentieth century, Syria possesses various natural resources, such as oil, gas, and phosphate, in addition to other resources that are no less important, such as antiquities and ancient cities.
The first alphabet was launched from the lands of Syria, and its ancient civilizations of Mari, Ugarit, Ebla, Palmyra, and Apamea wove the threads of human knowledge, until Islam entered it and established a new civilization that extended from Central Asia in the east to Andalusia in the west, under the umbrella of a prosperous empire whose capital was Damascus.
In modern history, Syria was liberated from French occupation in 1946 and witnessed national rule, which extended until 1963, the year in which the Baath Party seized the reins of power through a military coup, and with its iron fist, it brought down the curtain on the political and parliamentary life that the country had enjoyed for two decades. To appear as an authoritarian, exclusionary body, steeped in ideology, raising nationalist and socialist slogans, which from a general perspective did not yield anything other than the loss of Syria. The Golan lands in the south of the country, during what is known as the Six-Day War, which Israel launched in 1967 against the neighboring countries (Syria, Jordan, and Egypt).
The Baath describes the coup led by Hafez al-Assad against his comrades in the party, in 1970, in which he took control of Syria by force, as a corrective movement, but soon the correction began to establish a family kingdom, in which his son Bashar inherited it after his death in 2000, so that he too could lead Syria in a security manner. Differences in opinion are seen as a potential threat to the regime and its party establishment.
In the period between 1970 and 2024, which is the period during which the Assad family ruled Syria, the country lost most of its resources and capabilities, and the men in power took control of the assets of the economy, and mortgaged the country to a kleptocratic system (the rule of thieves) that allowed an influential group of relatives and friends to grow their financial wealth, and increase it in a period of time. After 2011, Assad Jr. gave them the opportunity to seize what remained of the resources, in exchange for strengthening his rule and crushing the Street protests with deadly violence.
In the period between 1970 and 2024, which is the period during which the Assad family ruled Syria, the country lost most of its resources and capabilities, and the men of power took control of the assets of the economy, and mortgaged the country to a kleptocratic regime.
Syria’s most important resources
Syria is, according to economic experts, one of the richest countries in the region with its natural resources. It possesses oil, gas, and phosphates, and produces wheat, cotton, oils, and livestock meat in abundant quantities. Its factories also produce textiles and foodstuffs.
Its diversified economy possesses strengths and inherent material and human resources, in addition to accumulated experience in the fields of industry, trade and agriculture, which has always achieved a regional, Arab and international presence.
Oil is at the forefront of the country’s natural resources, and is a major sector in the country’s economy, and its reserves rank 31st on the global level.
Most of its wells are concentrated in the governorates of Al-Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor, and Raqqa, in the north and east of the country.
In a report published in 2019, the American “Oil Prices” website, which specializes in energy affairs, estimated Syria’s total oil reserves at about 2.5 billion barrels, representing 0.2% of the total global reserves amounting to about 1.6 trillion barrels, which is close to the United Kingdom’s reserves of 2.8 billion barrels. Billion barrels.
However, according to the British Petroleum website, oil production has declined since 2009 and reached approximately 4,000 barrels per day, compared to 406,000 barrels in 2008. Production continued to decline until it reached 385,000 barrels in 2010, then to 353,000 barrels in 2011. The year in which protests against Bashar al-Assad’s regime began, then it continued to decline to 24 thousand barrels per day in 2018.
For his part, the Minister of Oil in the previous government of Hussein Arnous, Firas Qaddour, estimated his country’s production in 2021 at about 31.4 million barrels, with a daily average of 85.9 thousand barrels.
In statements on the sidelines of the Arab Energy Conference, in December last year, he acknowledged that the decline would continue in 2023, reaching 15,000 barrels per day, which is the lowest production rate witnessed by the oil sector during the last two decades.
Government sources indicate that oil sector revenues constituted 50% of total public revenues between 1990 and 2010, while its exports amounted to about 65% of total exports, and its contribution to the domestic product reached more than 25%, according to the same sources.
As for gas, the proven reserves of natural gas in Syria amounted to about 9 trillion cubic feet, at the end of 2010, representing 0.1% of the total global reserves.
In this context, the US Geological Service expected that there are other undiscovered natural reserves in the sea, estimated at about 700 billion cubic metres.
Gas production is concentrated in the Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor regions in the northeast of the country, and according to BP data, its production in 2010 reached about 800 million cubic feet per day, compared to 500 million cubic feet per day on average in 2008 and 2009, against the backdrop of investing in new fields. .
The operation of the project in the south-central region of the country, which was established by the Russian gas company StroytransGas in 2009, led to an increase in Syria’s natural gas production by about 40%, along with other projects that entered the scope of operation.
Minister Kaddour pointed out that Syria’s total gas production declined from 30 million cubic meters per day in 2011 to 10 million cubic meters per day in 2023.
The General Corporation for Geology and Mineral Resources (governmental) estimates the size of the country’s phosphate reserves at approximately two billion tons. It produces 2.5 million tons annually, while it exports two million tons, and the rest is consumed within the country.
Phosphate reservoirs are distributed in Khanaifis in the Palmyra region in the middle of the Levant Desert, and in the Al-Haffa region in the mountains of the Syrian coast to the east of the city of Latakia.
According to the source, Syrian phosphate is considered one of the finest types of phosphate in the world.
In terms of tourism, official statistics indicate that the number of visitors to the country in 2010 reached about 8.5 million tourists, and the sector’s revenues in the same year amounted to 30.8 billion Syrian pounds ($8.4 billion) according to the exchange rate at the time, constituting 14% of the economy.
World Bank reports reveal that the sector’s revenues declined in 2011 to $1.82 billion, which is the lowest percentage during the first decade of the ousted president’s rule.
While the decline in arrivals between 2011 and 2019 led to the sector losing imports, estimated by former Tourism Minister Mohamed Martini at about $50 billion.
The Assad regime and the waste of resources
Economist Ahmed Salama believes that the production of the three sectors (oil, gas, and phosphate) underwent a contraction according to the numbers provided by the government, even in the pre-war period, and the previous regime often deliberately avoided talking about any accurate actual numbers related to the economic situation in general.
He explained that the policy of ambiguity that he was following, especially with regard to the natural resources being invested and his foreign currency reserves, continued until an advanced period, and the Central Bureau of Statistics, the main source of information, subjected it to freezing its electronic platform for years, and when it activated it, the available numbers were devoid of any update. .
Salama told Al Jazeera Net: “It was expected that imports of natural resources would have an impact on the economy and the livelihoods of the population, given the rise in their incomes, but what happened was the opposite, which indicates the existence of a missing link that successive governments did not disclose during the last three decades.
A study conducted by the Jusoor Center for Research and Studies, on the reality and consequences of the Syrian regime’s economy, revealed that natural and semi-natural wealth, such as oil, tobacco and some other wealth, had their resources completely hidden for the benefit of the Assad family, indicating that Muhammad Makhlouf, the uncle of the ousted president, was the actual director of the number of Much of this wealth.
The study added that the Syrian regime focused on benefiting from the mining wealth sector, especially phosphate and crude oil, as it has been its main resource since its inception. Assad Sr. monopolized this sector to finance the Republican Palace, and oil revenues did not appear within the state budget, and the accounts of the Ministry of Oil were presented To the Republican Palace directly, and this measure was justified under the pretext of covering military spending.
According to Salama, the approach of illegal enrichment and organized plunder of resources, and the lack of interest in developing and modernizing other productive sectors, such as the agricultural sector for example, in which workers moved from the countryside to the cities to join security and military jobs supporting the regime, has caused the state to lose significant revenues, and has transformed Syrian society. To a hungry people who have lost their food security in the last decade.
Agricultural capabilities in Syria
The agricultural sector – along with oil – constitutes a fundamental pillar of the Syrian economy, according to World Bank studies.
The area of arable land is about 32% of the country’s area, while the agricultural sector contributes 28% of the gross domestic product.
Official information indicates that the sector attracted more than 40% of the population in the years that preceded the rule of the Assad family, while the percentage declined in the penultimate decade to 26%, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Semi-official reports indicate that agriculture, which was viewed as a basic pillar of development and a renewable resource for consumption, manufacturing or export products, was neglected in terms of development and modernization, and the sector was exposed to a major shock with the beginning of openness in 2005 due to the transfer of its workers to the government sector with a fixed salary. Following the drought that struck many agricultural areas within the country.
Syria is often talked about as a country that witnessed wheat cultivation early in history and was self-sufficient for many years.
Before Assad Jr. took over the reins of power, the yield of wheat cultivation reached approximately 5 million tons per year, but it soon gradually declined until it reached about one million tons in 2021.
In addition to wheat, Syria is famous for growing cotton, which is considered one of the finest types of cotton in the world, and Europe prefers it over others, for producing high-quality textiles.
The Scientific Research Authority of the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture indicates that its cultivation began in the 19th century, specifically in 1820, in partnership with Egypt.
Its production developed at the end of the last century, as its cultivated areas occupied about 22% of the irrigated land area in Syria, and the yield per unit area increased from 1,625 kilograms per hectare to 4,000 kilograms.
According to the Syrian Ministry of Agriculture, Syria’s production in 2006 amounted to about 8,000 tons, and later rose to 25,000 tons. Most of the quantities produced were exported to Switzerland, Germany, and China.
In 2024, production increased by approximately 10,000 tons compared to the 2023 season.
Loss of resources in Syria
In this context, economic expert Musaf Al-Khawaldeh confirms that the Syrian economy, which was originally dependent on a large percentage of output and income, and on productive activities that depend on natural resources, and on the sale of raw materials and raw materials, and its wheel revolves under the umbrella of a regime that did not last long, so its resources dried up, Its production base was destroyed, and then it quickly collapsed, as a result of the high costs of the war.
He added, in his speech to Al Jazeera Net, that what contributed to the rapid collapse of the economy as it appeared in recent years was the regime’s continued strengthening of its privileges, and the continuation of its financially beneficial group in combining organized plunder of major wealth with temporary plunder, as they together monopolized investment in vital sectors. , such as oil and communications, and they seized control of large sectors of the financial sector, controlled the trade sector (import and export), and transferred the proceeds of their investments to external accounts.
Moreover, Al-Khawaldeh believes that what was more dangerous was Assad’s negligence in vital production sectors with rich resources, shared by foreign parties, most notably Russia and Iran, through which he paid the bill for his spending on the weapons that he used in his war against his people for 13 years without interruption.
