Syria's proved oil reserves, on a liquids-aggregate definition that includes crude oil, lease condensate, natural gas liquids and oil sands, are published as 2,500,000 thousand barrels, and the figure has been reprinted unchanged for at least five years [CORRECTED 26 AUGUST 2026 AT THE PART THREE GATE 6 REMEDIATION, AND THE STRUCK WORDING IS QUOTED SO IT CANNOT RETURN: this field read 'proved crude oil reserves', which contradicts this row's own Measure_and_scope: 'THE COLUMN IS NOT CRUDE OIL ALONE'. Chapter 9 v7 lines 15 and 27 have it right and the register was the party that was wrong. Origin: H7.]
Claim ID
OILRES-001
Exact or summary claim
Syria's proved oil reserves, on a liquids-aggregate definition that includes crude oil, lease condensate, natural gas liquids and oil sands, are published as 2,500,000 thousand barrels, and the figure has been reprinted unchanged for at least five years [CORRECTED 26 AUGUST 2026 AT THE PART THREE GATE 6 REMEDIATION, AND THE STRUCK WORDING IS QUOTED SO IT CANNOT RETURN: this field read 'proved crude oil reserves', which contradicts this row's own Measure_and_scope: 'THE COLUMN IS NOT CRUDE OIL ALONE'. Chapter 9 v7 lines 15 and 27 have it right and the register was the party that was wrong. Origin: H7.]
Destination
Chapter 9
Status
QUALIFIED
Source
Oil and Gas Journal, 'Worldwide look at reserves and production', November-December 2025, folios 18 and 19, read at the 300 dpi render research/CH9_OILGAS_OGJ_wwrp_2025-11-12_pages/p001.png; the 2023 edition at research/CH9_OILGAS_OGJ_wwrp_2023.pdf; US Energy Information Administration Syria country analysis brief of 24 June 2015 at research/CH9_OILGAS_EIA_syria_2015_CAB.txt line 112
Source type
Trade publication survey, and a national statistical agency citing it
Published
2025-11-12
Accessed
2026-08-23
Measure and scope
Estimated proved reserves of oil, in thousand barrels, Syrian Arab Republic, as at 1 January of the stated year. THE COLUMN IS NOT CRUDE OIL ALONE: the table's footnote 1 reads 'Includes crude oil, lease condensate, natural gas liquids, and oil sands', so it is a liquids aggregate
Known conflict
THE FIGURE IS A CARRY-FORWARD AND NOT AN ANNUAL ESTIMATE. The same 2,500,000 is printed at 1 January 2021, 2022, 2025 and 2026. The journal's own method note says it 'changes its estimate for a country only when it receives evidence that a change is in order' and that 'a year-to-year change or lack thereof may not necessarily reflect a change that applies to the calendar year alone'. It states no source for the Syria row. THE EIA IS NOT AN INDEPENDENT CORROBORATION: its 2015 brief cites this same journal for the same 2.5 billion barrels, so the two are one source and not two [LOCATOR CORRECTED 24 AUGUST 2026, CH9-B11, AND THE ROW CARRIED THE SAME ERROR AS THE PROSE. This row attributed the two quotations to 'the journal's own method note', and the chapter said they were in a method note beside the table. NEITHER IS TRUE. The whole text layer of the table PDF carries exactly two notes, the Neutral Zone note and the liquids footnote, and searching it for 'changes its estimate' and 'lack thereof' returns zero. BOTH SENTENCES ARE IN THE ACCOMPANYING SURVEY ARTICLE of 8 December 2025 by Conglin Xu and Laura Bell-Hammer, at character offsets 2332 and 2489 of research/CH9_OILGAS_OGJ_article_2025survey.html. THE CORRECTION MATTERS BECAUSE THE CONTRAST DEPENDS ON IT: the chapter set what the table's note says against what the article omits, and they are one document.] [SPAN EXTENDED AND CLOSED 24 AUGUST 2026, SRC-393. This row said the figure had been reprinted unchanged for at least five years and named four as-at dates. The two intervening editions have since been retrieved and read at the render, and THE RUN IS NOW CONTINUOUS: 2,500,000 thousand barrels and 8,500 bcf at 1 January 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026, six consecutive as-at dates across four editions, with NO UNREAD DATE IN THE RUN. The claim may now be stated as six consecutive annual statements rather than as a span with gaps.]
Specialist
Petroleum reserves estimation
Downstream
Chapters 9 and 10
Action
Print it as a figure carried unchanged since at least 2021 by a trade survey that revises only on evidence received, with its liquids-aggregate definition attached. DO NOT print it as a current independent estimate, and do not present the EIA as a second publication confirming it. A reserves audit is what would settle it and none has been published AND ATTRIBUTE THE METHOD QUOTATIONS TO THE SURVEY ARTICLE OF 8 DECEMBER 2025, not to a note beside the table. [BAR LIFTED 24 AUGUST 2026, SRC-393, AND THE STRUCK WORDING IS QUOTED SO A PARTIAL READING CANNOT REINTRODUCE IT: this Action read 'Do not print a count of editions: four as-at dates in two held editions is what the evidence reaches', AND THAT IS NOW FALSE. The two intervening editions were retrieved and read at the render on the same day. FOUR EDITIONS ARE HELD and the run is continuous at six consecutive as-at dates, 1 January 2021 through 2026, with no unread year. A count of editions may be printed provided every edition counted is held and read.] The bar that survives is narrower: DO NOT PRINT A COUNT THAT INCLUDES AN EDITION NOT ON DISK.