Syria’s Oil and Natural Gas Fields Offer Opportunities for Investors

Old fields could produce 400,000 barrels of oil per day within a year … There are also some large natural gas reserves to exploit, but investment is needed to make the most of the opportunity. Syria has a wealth of resources and related industries, such as agriculture. In the 1950s, the country produced vast quantities of wheat—both hard and soft varieties—and exported fruit, olives, olive oil, leather, furniture, and fabrics made by skilled artisans, as a flourishing private sector boosted trade. The 1960s ushered in a change in political regime, however. Its state-capitalist model placed the means of production under…