Historically, the country produced heavy-grade oil from fields located in the northeast since the late 1960s. In the early 1980s, light-grade, low-sulphur oil was discovered near Deir ez-Zor in eastern Syria. Syria's rate of oil production has decreased dramatically from a peak close to  (bpd) in 1995 down to less than  in 2012. Since 2012 the production has decreased even more, reaching in 2014  (bpd). Official figures quantity the production in 2015 at , but those figures have to be taken with precaution because it is difficult to estimate the oil that is currently produced in the rebel held areas.