Friday, Jul 22, 2011


 
   By Iman Dawoud 
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

LONDON (Dow Jones)--Syrian opposition is lobbying the European Union and the U.S. for a ban on oil exports from the country, a Syrian activist has said, as the opposition pushes its strategy to put pressure on Bashar Al-Assad's government.

"We met and discussed the oil boycott with the European External Action Service in Brussels among others," the Syrian opposition figure, Ausama Monajed told Dow Jones Newswires recently. "Also, a lot of effort is taking place in Washington DC."

U.K. Foreign Secretary William Hague said this week there is a need for further sanctions, and added that talks now need to be focused "on what those would be."

There have already been three rounds of talks at the EU regarding this issue. Maja Kocijancic, deputy spokeswoman for EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said "sanctions (are) under constant review".

The opposition's strategy is to target the government's hard currency reserves through oil revenues, which they say is a key source of income. They say this is unlikely to hit global oil prices overall as Syria is not a significant enough producer but it will effectively squeeze the purse of the government in Damascus as a proportion of hard currency reserves are from oil revenues.

It is estimated that the government holds between $13 billion and $18 billion in hard currency, Monajed said.

According to the CIA world factbook Syria's oil exports for 2008 were 155,000 barrels a day, it is currently estimated to be 148,000 barrels a day mark. Syria produces a type of crude that is only refined in Italy, Spain, France and The Netherlands, so for the sanctions to be effective it is key that the EU is on board.

Both the U.S. and the EU have already adopted sanctions on key individuals within and connected to the government they have yet to extend any such sanctions to cover Syrian exports or European companies.

A spokesman for Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) said: "Shell will comply with all applicable sanctions."

U.K.'s Hague said this week that the time is now right to look at expanding the existing sanctions on Syria, and he added that he hoped to see new measures over "the coming days and weeks."

-By Iman Dawoud; Dow Jones Newswires; +44 207 842 9344; iman.dawoud@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

22-07-11 0915GMT