Marathon Confirms Syrian Discovery: Marathon Oil Co.,...

Marathon Confirms Syrian Discovery: Marathon Oil Co., a unit of USX Corp., confirmed that it had discovered oil in Syria in a field previously thought to contain only natural gas. Marathon spokesman William P. Ryder said that a well in the Ash Shaer field recently flowedat a rate of 2,800 barrels of crude oil a day, significant enough to warrant further drilling. Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. said it had signed a production-sharing agreement with the Syrian national oil company to begin exploring a 1.7 million-acre block of land in southwestern Syria thought to contain major reserves.