A gas pipeline in Syria's northeast was damaged in a "sabotage attack, " the state-owned petroleum company said Thursday, the latest such incident against an energy conduit in recent weeks.
The explosion followed a separate incident on Thursday morning in which a pipeline transporting oil products from the coastal city of Baniyas to the central province of Homs was damaged in what the Syrian Petroleum Company described as sabotage aimed at stealing fuel.
Years of civil war before the fall of longtime dictator Bashar Assad in late 2024 devastated Syria's oil, gas and electricity sectors, with the country becoming heavily reliant on imports to meet its needs.
"The Al-Jabsa production gas pipeline was targeted" in Hasakah province, causing a fire, the Syrian Petroleum Company said, according to official news agency SANA.
The company said that the 16-inch pipeline exploded at 5:15 p.m. in an area about 60 km from the city of Al-Shaddadi.
Technical teams isolated the damaged section by closing valves at the plant and the Deir ez-Zor gas station in the al-Bughailiya area, while firefighting and safety crews headed to the site to secure the area, the statement said.
"Relevant authorities are monitoring the situation. The area has been cordoned off, the isolation valves on either side of the targeted section have been closed, and the surrounding area has been secured," the company said.
That incident at the Baniyas-Homs oil products pipeline caused a gasoline leak, the company said, adding that work was continuing to repair the damage and restore the line to service.
The state petroleum company said last week that an oil pipeline in the country's northeast was also damaged in a sabotage attack.
On Sept. 29, sabotage targeting a gas pipeline in eastern Syria caused an explosion, according to SANA.
And in early October, an explosion at a gas pipeline near the capital Damascus took three power stations offline.
The incidents come after demonstrations last month over rising fuel prices, which authorities linked to price hikes caused by the Middle East war.