The Canadian firm has been developing the Oudeh, Sheik Mansour and Tishrine concessions in the northeast region of Syria for several years, after signing production-sharing deals with the state-run Syrian Petroleum Company.

Although the three fields hold about 184 million barrels of oil in reserves, Tanganyika only expects production of about 12,800-barrels-a-day (b/d) by the end of 2008.

The state-run China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) already holds a stake in Syria’s Al-Furat Company, whose 36 producing fields are expected to produce 170,000 b/d in 2008 (MEED 29:8:08).

Syria recorded a 6.5 per cent drop in oil production last year to 394,000 b/d and a 5 per cent decrease in annual gas output to 183.6 billion cubic feet.