Tatneft has halted work in Syria, citing instability in the country, after foreign oil companies including Royal Dutch Shell also stopped operating there due to European Union sanctions.
"We intend to continue operations if the situation stabilizes," a Tatneft spokesman said by telephone, citing public remarks by company head Shafagat Takhautdinov.
The oil company has a production-sharing agreement with Syria's state-owned General Petroleum Corporation, which is on an EU blacklist under a sanctions regime aimed at isolating President Bashar Assad. Their joint venture started production at the South Kishma field in Syria's northwestern Deir ez Zor province in 2010, with daily output of 80 tons of light, sweet crude.
(Reuters)
