Damascus: A mysterious blast occurred onboard an oil tanker off the Syrian port of Banias on Sunday. Hours before the tanker exploded, a major fire erupted at the largest fuel refinery in Syria’s Homs province. The fires at both places were doused successfully, a Syrian news channel reported. A major fuel crisis has been triggered in Syria due to sanctions from Western nations. Iran smuggles oil to Syria. However, incidents have surfaced of Iranian oil tankers being attacked in the last few months.
Western nations have imposed strict sanctions on Syria. As a result, Syria’s international trade has come to a grinding halt and disrupted oil supplies from other countries. Iran, which supports the Assad regime, smuggles oil to Syria. Also, Iran is unable to openly supply oil to other countries due to the sanctions the US has imposed. In such a scenario, Iran’s oil supply to Syria is considered an illicit transaction. Syria supplied oil acquired from Iran to the oil refinery at Holmes and the one at Port Banias. The oil refinery at Holmes supplies 110,000 barrels a day, while the port of Banias provides 130,000 barrels a day. Nevertheless, due to the rise in attacks on Iranian oil tankers in the past few days, oil reserves at Holmes and the port of Banias have been depleted.
Under such circumstances, mysterious blasts occurred only hours apart on oil tankers at Holmes refinery and near the port of Banias. A Syrian news channel said a fire had broken out at the pumping station at the Holmes refinery due to an oil leak. Besides, an official informed that no casualties were reported in the accident. An explosion triggered a blaze on an oil tanker near the port of Banias. Syrian officials have said an engine failure had caused the blast.
Although some media outlets suspect sabotage as fires erupted near the premises of Syria’s two large oil refineries on the same day. Earlier in January, a blast onboard an oil tanker had caused a fire to break out outside the Holmes facility. Furthermore, a state-run news channel reported the explosion on Sunday was caused on the ship, off the port of Banias, due to the engine’s malfunction. Moreover, it is the second incident of fire on the same vessel.
The ship caught fire for the first time last month. The Syrian media had blamed Israeli drone strikes for it. However, the Syrian government has not blamed Israel for Sunday’s attacks.
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