ConocoPhillips to sign gas deal with Syrian government

Energy company ConocoPhillips is reportedly planning to sign an exploration and development contract with the new Syrian government, the first US company to do so.

The contract is expected to be signed this week, the Financial Times reported, quoting two unidentified sources.

In November 2025, ConocoPhillips signed a memorandum of understanding with the state-run Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) to develop existing gas fields and search for new ones.

The Syrian government said last year that the potential deal would lift gas output by between 4 and 5 million cubic metres a day within a year, after gas production had fallen by two-thirds from its prewar high of 30 million cubic metres per day in 2011, the FT report said.

In July 2025, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order terminating a US sanctions programme on Syria.

In May this year, a consortium comprising France’s TotalEnergies, QatarEnergy and ConocoPhillips signed an MoU with SPC to explore Block 3, offshore Syria in the Mediterranean Sea.

In the same month Reuters reported that Syria had finalised the site for its first deepwater oil and gas exploration project with Qatar’s UCC Holding and US energy giant Chevron.

Another Reuters report in February 2026 said that US companies – Baker Hughes, Hunt Energy and Argent LNG – plan to partner with Taqa Saudi Arabia to explore four to five blocks in Syria’s northeastern region.

Further reading:

• Syria’s energy revamp rests on support from US and Gulf
• Turkey’s Esra Construction to expand industrial city in Syria
• Saudi company to invest up to $300m in Syria tourism project