In 2018, Syria had an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, compared with Saudi Arabia's 297 billion, Iran's 155 billion and Iraq's 147 billion barrels. Oil revenues have helped support Kurdish forces who use the profits for military purposes and to run a civil administration Syria holds 2,500,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves as of 2016, ranking 31st in the world and accounting for about 0.2% of the world's total oil reserves of 1,650,585,140,000 barrels. In 2010, the sector contributed about 35% of export earnings and 20% of government revenue. For the Syrian government, regaining control over its oil and gas reserves in the eastern part of its territory is crucial to paying for reconstruction efforts and social programs — especially at a time when suffocating US and EU sanctions have crippled the economy, caused fuel shortages, and severely hurt Syria’s civilian population. Syria's rate of oil production has decreased steadily from a peak of close to 610,000 bbl/d (97,000 mSyria's upstream oil production and development has traditionally been the mandate of the Al-Furat Petroleum Company is a joint venture established in 1985. Some statistics on this page are disputed and controversial. Although the Turkish offensive in northern Syria has resulted in Kurdish forces losing significant amounts of territory, most of the oil fields east of the Euphrates remain under SDF control.President Assad's government is desperate for access to its own oil fields, and without them needs to import significant quantities from abroad. "We're keeping the oil, remember that. Turkey has slammed the United States for a deal inked between Delta Crescent Energy LLC and the YPG-led SDF over the Syrian oil reserves in the east of Euphrates, dubbing the move as sponsoring the terrorism. However, as a consequence of strict US and EU sanctions, Damascus is finding this increasingly difficult. Independent sources estimate Syria's proven oil reserves, recoverable at costs not exceeding $5/b, at less than 2.5 bn barrels. 3. The state-owned Syrian Petroleum Co. (SPC) has put the proven oil reserves at about 3 bn barrels, a figure it has maintained since end-1993. The seizure of its oil reserves, coupled with US sanctions on its energy and export industries, have hammered the Syrian economy. In 2018, Syria had an estimated 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves, compared with Saudi Arabia's 297 billion, Iran's 155 billion and Iraq's 147 billion barrels. Since peaking at 590,000 bbl/d in 1996, Syrias oil output has fallen, to an estimated 460,000 bbl/d in 2004, as older fields, especially the large Jebisseh field discovered in 1968, have reached maturity. This is a list of countries by proven oil reserves.Proven reserves are those quantities of petroleum which, by analysis of geological and engineering data, can be estimated, with a high degree of confidence, to be commercially recoverable from a given date forward from known reservoirs and under current economic conditions. Compared with other Arab Gulf reserves, they are a drop in the ocean. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in a testimony to Congress in March, said Russia's support for Assad includes selling Syrian oil on world markets. The Syrian government lost control of most of the country's oil fields to the Syrian opposition groups and later the so-called Islamic State (IS), as the civil war escalated.By 2014 IS had managed to seize most of the fields in eastern Syria, including the largest, al-Omar, in Deir al-Zour province.