KOBANI, Syria (North Press) – Mohammad Ali, a resident of the city of Kobani, northern Syria, is waiting to obtain a household gas cylinder that he registered for three months ago, but he expresses his fear that it may take more time since the household gas production in northern Syria has completely stopped.
Last week, the gas office in Board of Fuel resumed registering process for gas cylinders through accreditors after it has been halted since Nov 20th due to Turkish heavy shelling that targeted several areas in northern Syria.
The 70-year-old Ali said that the registration process and sending the cylinders to Qamishli, northeast Syria, and returning them may take around a month, and in case there is a lack in supplies coming to Kobani from Qamishli, he may not receive his gas allocations.
Due to the Turkish shelling, two basic circuits (cooling and drying) as well as household gas production that supplied northeast Syria’s people has been totally stopped.
The amount of damage the gas installation sustained was estimated at 50 percent that requires additional time to rehabilitate it and return it to production in light of the difficulty in securing spare parts for the facility.
Maintenance work, according to maintenance supervisors, may take around three months in case of not facing obstacles or difficulties in securing spare parts and necessary technical expertise.
According to the plant’s management, the plant produced approximately 130 tons of household gas, equivalent to 13.000 cylinders per day.
According to prior statements made to North Press by officials of Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), this quantity had not met needs of the local market, thus the latter relied on importing gas from the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI).
Agid Abdul Majid, director of the Gas Investment Company in Hasakah Governorate fields, informed North Press that despite the high cost, which equals about $5 per cylinder, they will cover the shortfall from reserves in addition to importing gas.
The accreditors stopped the registration process as a result of the Turkish shelling of Kobani, fearing that Turkish warplanes and artillery target gas storage depots.
Turkey escalated its bombardment of northern Syria on November 20, targeting mostly infrastructure and public facilities.
Abdo Najar, a gas accreditor in Kobani’s “shahid Khabat” neighborhood, decided not to start the registration process or send gas cylinders during the time because locals’ feared the Turkish escalation.
The gas cylinder, relying on a card issued by the AANES, is sold for 8.500 Syrian pounds (SPY); previously, it was sold for 3.500 SPY, while its price ranges from 45 to 75 SPY on the black market.
Abdullah Haj Hussein, an official in the gas office of the Fuel Board in Kobani, said the office distributes 33.000 gas cylinders per month but it has ceased sending cylinders to Qamishli since the gas installation in the village of Suwaydiyah in northeast Syria was targeted.
According to Hussein, their cessation of work during the time caused 17.000 families to be deprived of their allocations of household gas in November.
This past week, the office started the registration process, and empty cylinders will be sent to Qamishli after registration is finished.