Syrian Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Ghanem announced on Thursday that Syria is looking forward to constructing a data center for oil geology in Damascus with Moscow’s help, as part of a roadmap signed lately between the two countries.
In an interview with the Sputnik agency, Ghanem said his country would be contributing technical equipment to the project.
"This center will be located in Damascus. We have a timetable for [the project's] implementation and have already begun the construction. As for the special technologies for the center, they will be provided by the Russian side,” the Syrian Minister explained.
Ghanem said the center’s staff would include specialists from both Syria and Russia.
The center is part of the cooperation roadmap that the Syrian government signed with the Russian Energy Ministry during the joint Russian-Syrian intergovernmental commission meeting held on December 23-24 in Moscow.
"I believe the cooperation with the Gubkin University [Russian National University of Oil and Gas] will be fruitful. The center will become the key information hub for the entire oil geology sector," Ghanem said.
Meanwhile, top adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad Bouthaina Shaaban said the US has 'absolutely no right' to Syria’s oil and warned of 'operations' against American troops.
She said her country is considering suing the US in an international court over the “theft of Syria’s oil.”
The German news agency quoted Shaaban as saying that Syria has begun an oil and gas exploration project in the Mediterranean with Russian companies.
Last October, US President Donald Trump withdrew the majority of the US Armed Forces from Syria before the Pentagon announced that 600 soldiers were staying put to guard the country's oil fields.
Commenting on the situation in Idlib, Shaaban said the military operation there has begun and that Russian warplanes were supporting the Syrian Army.
