By Feras Dalatey
BANIYAS, Syria, May 1 (Reuters) - Russia has emerged as the main supplier of oil to Syria, Reuters reporting shows, despite the new government's alignment with the West and widespread distrust of Moscow over its military support for fallen leader Bashar al-Assad.
Oil shipments from Russia have jumped 75% to about 60,000 barrels per day this year, the reporting found, based on Reuters calculations of official announcements and ship tracking data on LSEG, MarineTraffic and Shipnext.
The volumes represent a tiny share of Russia’s daily global oil exports.
But for Syria, where domestic production remains far below demand, the flows make Moscow the country's dominant crude supplier following the fall of Assad in December 2024, taking over from Iran which was a key ally of the ousted leader during the country's 14-year civil war.
The dynamic highlights how limited Syria's options remain. Despite emerging from the war as Western-leaning, its economy is not closely integrated into the global financial system, even after Europe and Washington last year ended decades of sanctions on the country.
Two analysts and three Syrian officials said the trade reflects economic necessity in Damascus and also gives Moscow influence in a country where it retains two naval and air bases.
The relationship with Russia risks straining ties with the EU and Washington, but Damascus currently has few options, said the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The trade could also make Syria’s energy sector vulnerable to renewed Western sanctions, said Syrian economist Karam Shaar.
“If the United States were to fail to reach an agreement or settlement with Russia regarding Ukraine, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it told Syria overnight to stop buying these oil shipments,” Shaar said, adding that Syria's government was aware of the risks and was looking for alternative suppliers.
An official at state-run Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) said Damascus was trying to diversify suppliers and had, so far unsuccessfully, sought an oil deal with Turkey, which is close to the Sharaa government.
Maritime analytics firm SynMax said financial constraints, commercial risks and years of conflict limit Syria's access to conventional tanker operators, leaving Russian-linked networks among the most viable options.
“These shipping networks could present reputational challenges for Syria as it seeks to re-establish commercial credibility," SynMax said in a statement, but noted that "a transition toward conventional international supply chains is unlikely to occur immediately."
Neither the Syrian nor Russian energy ministries responded to requests for comment. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on Syria's oil trade with Russia.
In response to the war in Iran, the U.S. Treasury has issued temporary waivers for countries to buy sanctioned Russian oil and petroleum products already at sea.
Syria's Ministry of Information, which handles media requests on behalf of Sharaa's office, also did not respond.
A Syrian energy ministry official said Syria’s reliance on Russian oil also reflected the country's limited market size and weak purchasing power, which made it hard to secure long-term contracts with other major oil producers such as Gulf countries.
The Central Bank of Syria only reactivated its account at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in March, opening opportunities for wider banking communications with the global financial system for the first time since 2011.
RUSSIA FIRST TO SEND OIL AFTER ASSAD FELL
Russia was first to send a tanker to Syria after Assad fell, and went on to supply 16.8 million barrels in 2025 - about 46,000 barrels per day - through 19 cargoes shipped between February 28 and December 31, according to Kpler data and one of the officials.
That has risen to an estimated 60,000 barrels per day this year, based on the Reuters calculations.
Reuters tracked the names of 21 vessels, which arrive at Syrian ports from Russia on an almost weekly basis. All the vessels are currently under Western sanctions.
The increase marks a sharp break from previous years. Until 2025, Iran was Syria's dominant crude supplier, while Russia’s role was limited to occasional diesel shipments. Kpler data shows that all crude imports in 2024 - about 22.2 million barrels - came from Iran, which halted supplies after Assad’s fall.
Despite the government regaining control of oil fields in eastern Syria, domestic production remains limited. The country’s largest field, al-Omar in Deir Ezzor, produces about 5,000 barrels per day, while total domestic output stood at roughly 35,000 bpd in 2025, far below pre-war levels of 350,000 bpd.
Syria’s daily oil and fuel needs are estimated at between 120,000 and 150,000 barrels, according to the Syrian Petroleum Company and energy ministry officials, while additional volumes - estimated by officials at around 50,000 bpd - are smuggled from neighbouring Lebanon, which imports oil from a variety of sources including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Russia.
The gap of about a third of domestic demand has been covered by the Russian shipments. The contracts were booked prior to the Iran war price shock and were bought at a discount to benchmark Brent crude prices, an official at the Syrian Company for Oil Transport familiar with the contracts said.
Syrian authorities announce in state media outlets when oil shipments arrive but do not disclose their origin, seemingly in recognition that Russia is unpopular domestically because of its military support for the Assad government.
The only delivery the government has identified was from ally Saudi Arabia in November, which it described as a grant.
Syrian officials acknowledge that the fate of the Russian bases often features in discussions between Damascus and Western capitals.
"Syria should do the right thing and what the majority of Syrians support and kick them out," U.S. Republican congressman Joe Wilson said of the bases in a post on X in April.
SANCTIONED VESSELS
At Syria’s Mediterranean terminals, the trade is handled by a rotating fleet tied to Russia’s network of sanctioned or high-risk tankers, operating under multiple flags including Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Comoros, Madagascar, Oman and Russia, LSEG data shows.
Part of the supply chain involves ship-to-ship transfers, often conducted near Greece, Cyprus or Egypt, according to SynMax analysis.
Such transfers of oil at sea rather than direct unloading in port are often used to reduce transportation costs or to evade sanctions by obscuring the origin and ownership of cargo.
“The ship-to-ship operations indicate that the United States is not totally turning a blind eye to these activities, and that the Syrian and Russian authorities are at least trying to conceal some of these shipments,” said Shaar, the economist.
On its short voyage from Cyprus, the Comoros-flagged Albarraq Z, sanctioned by the U.S. in January for alleged ties to Iran-backed Houthi networks, appeared to take on oil via three transfers at sea with ships had left Russian ports, before anchoring off Syria's Tartous, where draft changes from 11.9 to 7 meters suggested cargo discharge, according to SynMax. Reuters could not establish the purpose of the transfers.
Some vessels are tied to Iranian-linked trading networks also used by Russia. The Guinea-flagged Aether and Madagascar-flagged Briont were sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2025 for links to a network associated with Hossein Shamkhani, the son of a top advisor to the former Iranian Supreme Leader.
SynMax found both vessels showing irregular tracking behaviour, with Aether transmitting intermittently in early January and Briont broadcasting under another vessel’s identity from mid-January, even as their routes pointed to deliveries from Novorossiysk to Syria. Reuters could not establish the reason for the intermittent location data.
Syria has used such transfers partly because these are the logistics networks officials are familiar with after years excluded from normal shipping networks, one of the sources said.
Other ships unloading in Syria appear to be more directly linked to Russian logistics. The Oman-flagged Carma and Lynx are owned by a UAE-based company linked to Russia’s state shipping giant Sovcomflot, according to two separate analyses by intelligence firms Lloyd's List and Kharon.
The Comoros-flagged Grinch - detained by France in February - has been sanctioned by U.S. and EU since last year for links to Russia’s fleet exporting oil from Murmansk. Reuters could not independently verify the ownership of the vessels.
The trade is not only about Syria getting the oil and paying for it, warned Noam Raydan, a maritime risk and energy analyst at Washington Institute.
"The question is who are the sanctioned actors that are actually benefiting from this trade,” she told Reuters.
(Writing by Feras Dalatey; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)
