Suncor Halts Operations in Syria

New sanctions introduced by the EU mean the lights will be going off at one of Syria's largest natural gas plants.

Suncor, the Canadian energy company, has announced that it has shut down a natural gas plant in Syria due to new sanctions introduced by the European Union. Suncor's plant had provided electricity for about a fifth of all homes in Syria, but had also generated revenue for the state-owned General Petroleum Corp. Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird had said that Suncor's gas plant was protected from international sanctions as it was essential for keeping lights on and power running in hundreds of thousands of homes throughout Syria. Suncor's oil and gas exporting operations in Syria had been put on indefinite hold under an earlier round of sanctions. This newest round of sanctions from the EU, however, required that Suncor halt energy production because its Syrian operations were administered from the Netherlands. The UN estimates that at least 4,000 people have been killed in Syria since anti-government demonstrations erupted nine months ago.