Iran to build 'multi-million dollar oil refinery' in Syria's Homs

Iran plans to construct a new multi-million dollar oil refinery in the Syrian city of Homs after the brutal six-year war ends, Iranian media reported this week.

The oil refinery facility will cost an estimated $1 billion and would be able to produce up to 140,000 barrels per day at full capacity, Iran's Fars News Agency reported.

"This refinery will be built as a consortium with the participation of Iran, Venezuela and Syria," Akbar Zamanian, the head of technologies at the Research Institute of Petroleum Industry (RIPI) said, according to Fars.

Iran will also reportedly rebuild two existing oil refineries.

The project will be built by Iranian companies with finances secured by foreign countries, another RIPI official added.

The main products will be liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), petrol, gasoline, and kerosene.

The United States has reportedly expressed concern over the oil refinery plans.

Earlier in September, Iran secured multi-million dollar contracts for Iranian power companies in war-torn Aleppo, reaping the rewards of its pivotal backing for Syrian regime President Bashar al-Assad in the country's brutal six-year war.

The contracts, valued at around $155 million, would see Iranian companies import five gas fired power plants to the war-torn country.

The deal was part of a wider understanding between Tehran and Damascus promising Iranian companies contracts to restore electrical infrastructure in war-torn Syria.

Earlier this year, Assad's regime awarded a concession to Iran for the operation of a new cellular network in Syria.

The regime has also signed other concessions to Iran which include thousands of hectares of land for farming and oil and gas terminals, and the operation of a phosphate mine in central Syria.

Iran, Russia, and Hizballah have all backed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the war, with Iran sending thousands of Revolutionary Guards and Shia militia fighters to bolster Damascus' decimated armed forces.