Damascus, SANA- Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ghanem discussed with a Russian delegation headed by Deputy Minister of Energy, Kirill Molodtsov, means of cooperation with Russian petroleum companies working in the field of gas, oil and mineral wealth and means of boosting the bilateral relations between the two countries in the field of investment.

Minister Ghanem stressed the Ministry’s interest in launching investment partnerships with the Russian side in the field of exploring oil and gas, rehabilitating the standing oil facilities and establishing new ones, in addition to the investment in the fields of mineral wealth and benefiting from the technical advance of the Russian side as well as training and qualifying the working staffs.

The Minister pointed out to the agreements signed between the Ministry of Petroleum and the Russian oil companies, adding that the Ministry looks forwards to signing Memos of Understanding or work plans for the upcoming stage with the Russian companies.

Head of the Russian delegation stressed his country’s interest in expanding prospects of cooperation with Syria in the economic domains including oil through establishing partnerships between the two sides in the fields of exploration, qualification and investment in different sectors.

He stressed the importance of these projects to be studied by the Russian side in order to be proposed in the Syrian-Russian Joint Committee, whose meeting is scheduled to be held in the Russian city of Sochi on October 9th and 10th .

The Russian delegation comprises the Russian Deputy Minister of Industry and a number of senior directors and representatives of Russian oil companies.

R.Milhem/Ghossoun