Q&A: Ahmad Salman, deputy president of Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party

SULAIMANIYA - Ahmad Salman is uniquely positioned to give insight into the future of Syria's oil sector after the fall of the Assad regime.

As a geologist who served in the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC) until 2014, he is directly familiar with the significant potential of Syria's oil fields: they are producing less than 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) now, but before the civil war their output totaled as much as 380,000 bpd.

Salman is also involved in charting the political future of Syria. As the deputy president of the Kurdish Democratic Progressive Party, he helped form and shape the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) — which governs the territory containing most of Syria's oil fields — and he is now working to organize a unified Kurdish entity to negotiate the parameters of a new Syrian state with leaders in Damascus.

Such political progress will be necessary for any future oil development, according to Salman. An agreement reached in early March, between Gen. Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Syrian transitional President Ahmad Sharaa, sets a framework for pursuing a unified state, but it does not establish any of the institutions, legal foundations, or security arrangements that would enable oil companies to invest.

Salman recently spoke with Iraq Oil Report during a diplomatic mission to Sulaimaniya. A full transcript of the interview is below.