OREANDA-NEWS. September 09, 2013. Chinese oil companies pulled out of Syria amid strife in the Middle Eastern nation, Xinhua News Agency said, citing an official at China’s Ministry of Commerce.

China won’t continue its foreign-aid projects in Syria, the official news agency cited Zhong Manying, head of West Asian and African affairs department at the ministry as saying in an interview on the sidelines of a press conference today. Zhong didn’t specify the companies that had pulled out.

China Petrochemical Corp.’s international units worked on two oilfields and infrastructure projects in Syria, according to a newsletter on the company’s website in 2009. China National Petroleum Corp., the nation’s biggest oil and gas producer, entered Syria in 2002 and owns stakes in the Gbeibe oilfield and Al Furat Petroleum Co., according to information posted on the company’s official website.

China Petrochemical’s Beijing-based spokesman Lv Dapeng didn’t answer two calls to his office seeking comment. Li Runsheng, China National Petroleum’s Beijing-based spokesman, didn’t answer two calls to his office seeking comment.

China imported no more than 29 barrels of oil from Syria in 2012, according to data from China’s General Administration of Customs. The country hasn’t imported any oil from Syria in the first seven months of this year, according to customs data.