Iran decided to restrict cheap oil supplies to Syria, increasing the price for additional oil shipments, as well as demanding payments in advance rather than on credit, the newspaper claims adding that such actions could leave Syria facing one of the worst fuel shortages since 2011.
A spokesman for the Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union in Tehran, Hamid Hosseini, said that as Iran continues to be under sanctions for oil exports, "there is no reason to sell [oil] to Syria at low prices," as quoted in the report.
In early December 2022, the Syrian authorities temporarily introduced a four-day workweek in Syria's state institutions due to an acute fuel shortage spurred by sanctions and the decline in local currency.
Syria has been facing fuel shortages due to sanctions for several years. Syria consumes about 100,000 barrels of oil per day but produces only 24,000 barrels. Many oil-producing facilities in Syria are either destroyed or remain beyond the government's control, and the delivery of oil and petroleum products to the country is extremely difficult due to the Western sanctions.