Syria’s main oil pipeline to the Homs refinery has be blown up again, according to reports from CNN and Associated Press.
Amateur footage dated today shows large thick plumes of black smoke rising from the city skyline.
The latest attack suggests that Syria’s oil infrastructure could be severe debilitated by by the current conflict. Homs is a key town for Syria’s oil industry, host the to country’s largest oil refinery and a vital transit point for crude and refined products to the ports of Baniyas (home to Syria’s only other refinery) and Tartous. It also hosts the South Central Area gas plant, which in addition to processing 7.2 million cubic meters per day of gas can produce 4,000 barrels of hydrocarbonic condensate, 50 tons of cooking gas, 4 tons of propane, and 5,000 cubic meters of nitrogen per day.
Opposition group Local Coordination Committees says the pipeline was hit Wednesday morning in the neighborhood of Baba Amr. There are differing accounts how the pipeline was attacked, with some accounts claiming an airstrike and others blaming government shelling, which has continued in Homs for 12 days. The government has not yet commented on the attack.
The Homs refinery, located in Bab Amr, a district seven kilometres west of the city centre, is the largest in the country with a refining capacity of 5.7 mmt of crude, with the ability to process light and heavy grades. It is connected to Syria’s eastern oil fields by the 250,000 barrels of crude per day (bpd), 347-mile Tel Adas-Tartous crude line, which runs on from Homs to the Tartous export terminal on Syria’s western coast.
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