Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa receives the American delegation, led by Tom Barrack, at the People's Palace in Damascus, Syria on Feb. 4, 2026.
Syria signed a preliminary deal with U.S. energy giant Chevron and Qatari firm Power International on Wednesday to explore for oil and gas off the coast of the country, which is still recovering from years of civil war.
Syria's new Islamist authorities, who overthrew former ruler Bashar al-Assad in late 2024, are seeking to woo investors to rebuild and drawing closer to other countries in the region and the United States.
The state-owned petroleum company signed the memorandum of understanding in Damascus with Chevron and Power International at a ceremony attended by U.S. envoy to Syria Tom Barrack, the official SANA news agency reported.
"The deal marks Syria's first formal step toward offshore energy exploration," it said.
Some of the country's neighbours have already begun exploring for gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean, and in certain cases exploiting them as well.
Lebanon wants to demarcate its maritime borders with Syria in order to expand exploration.
Under Assad, Syria signed deals with Russian companies for offshore gas exploration, but they never came to fruition.
The civil war that ravaged the country from 2011 to 2024 had hobbled oil production.
The new authorities recently regained control of the country's largest oil field, Al-Omar in the east, after Kurdish forces withdrew under a bilateral agreement.
Last May, Syria signed a $7 billion energy deal with a consortium of Qatari, Turkish and U.S. companies -- including Power International -- to revive its crippled power sector following years of conflict.
The project includes four gas-powered plants in central and eastern Syria and a 1,000-megawatt solar farm in the south.
