TW-International: Oil trades sever links with Syria ahead of EU embargo.

Aug. 25, 2011 - PRLog -- TW-International has learned that over the last few days several traders and foreign oil firms have quietly stopped dealing with Syria, refusing to take new contracts to export or import.
“We are not participating in new tenders of deals,” an oil trading executive based in Geneva told TW-international, while another said: “We have stopped recently dealing with them.”

Industry executives said that the companies still had outstanding contracts signed prior to news of the embargo to either supply refined products or buy crude. These they said But they said were unlikely to be fulfilled due to the imposition of the sanctions.
Brussels is moving ahead to impose an embargo on oil exports after EU governments recently agreed to impose new sanctions against Mr. Assad in response to his violent five-month crackdown on Syria’s pro-democracy movement.

Industry analysts informed TW-International that they anticipated that the EU would officially announce the embargo before the end of August.

The move comes only days after Washington imposed sweeping sanctions against Syria, banning US companies from importing or exporting crude or oil products to and from the country. Although Syria is an oil producer, pumping about 378,000 barrels a day, like many middle-eastern countries its limited refining capacity forces it to import fuel.

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