Syria signs 49-year contract for operation, overhaul of Tartus port with Russia’s Stroytransgaz

Tartus, Syria (PortSEurope) April 25, 2019 – The Syrian authorities have concluded a 49-year investment contract with Russian company Stroytransgaz for the expansion and operation of the port of Tartus, transport minister Ali Hamud said.

A total of $500 million (€449.5 million) will be invested in the reconstruction of the port, including the expansion of the port in the north and the construction of new infrastructure. As a result, its handling capacity should increase from the current 4 million to 38 million tonnes per annum.

The minister noted that the experience of working with a Russian company in Tartus could be extended to other Syrian ports.

The ports of Tartus and Latakia were managed by the Philippine’s International Container Terminal Services until 2011, when due to the civil war in Syria, they were classified as dangerous areas.

In January this year, a Russian delegation, which included the governor of Sevastopol (in Russian-occupied Ukrainian Crimea), Dmitry Ovsyannikov, visited Syria. The authorities of Sevastopol and the Syrian province of Tartus signed a cooperation agreement. One of the areas of collaboration is the organisation of freight traffic.

In 2017, Russia and Syria signed an agreement on the deployment of the Russian Navy logistics station for 49 years in Tartus. Following a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Asad on April 20, 2019, Russian deputy prime minister Yury Borisov said that the port of Tartus would be leased to Russia for 49 years. Such a decision, he said, was taken at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in December 2018.

OAO Stroytransgaz is a Russian engineering construction company in the field of oil and gas industry, and controlled by Gennady Timchenko though the Volga Group SICAV SIF SA fund.

A background article on this topic can be accessed here.

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