The American theft of Syrian oil and wheat

The United States introduces itself as the greatest country in the world and the greatest defender of democracy, freedom and law, but, in fact, it is nothing but a thief.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the United States decided to illegally send its troops to areas in the northeast of Syria to occupy them. In fact, this has been a predetermined and well-studied US plan with a clear target, which is oil, not fighting the ISIS terrorist organization as Washington has claimed. Several geographic and demographic factors have facilitated the achievement of this plan, in addition to the pretext of fighting ISIS terrorists who entered Syria from Iraq across the borders which are supposed to be controlled by the American bases in Iraqi territories.

The US occupation decided to deploy its forces in the northeast of Syria without the approval of the Syrian government – allegedly with the aim of preventing the oilfields in this region from falling into the hands of ISIS terrorists and eliminating this terror group.

Turkey did the same and announced that it wanted to fight ISIS, so it deployed its forces in this region and started together with the US occupation to steal the Syria’s resources of oil and agricultural crops, mainly the wheat.

It is to be noted that Syria was a self-sufficient country of wheat and others strategic crops until 2011 when the terrorist war on Syria erupted, causing huge humanitarian suffering to the Syrian people.

Washington’s crime of stealing Syrian oil, which has been documented by witnesses and photos, violates all international laws and conventions set by the international community after the World War II to establish peace and security in the world.

“Tishreen” Newspaper published a report on Monday revealing details of the US crimes, including when and how the US forces started to steal the Syrian people’s wealth and to where the stolen Syria oil goes and why the international community is still silent over this crime and its perpetrators.

The US theft of Syrian oil would not have been a success without the assistance of internal agents. The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia volunteered to help the occupation achieve its goal. Thus the theft began in the Syrian Al-Jazira region, northeast of the country mainly in Hasaka and Deir Ezzor provinces after the US helped the SDF militia to control the oilfields.

The 55 tankers and trucks loaded with Syrian oil and wheat stolen by the US occupation forces on October 30, 2022, was not the first and not the last US theft. Since the establishment of the illegal US-led international coalition in September 2014, the United States focused its plan on seizing Syria’s oil and wheat, not on fighting ISIS, which was created by the US itself.

Political and economic pressure

Through controlling Syria’s natural resources, the United States aimed at achieving several goals. The first is to use these resources as a means for political and economic pressure on Syria. The second is to prevent Syria from being one of the world’s oil and gas producers fearing that Syria may become part of the network that supplies and transfers gas from Iran to Europe and through Turkey to Europe. The third goal is to prevent the Syrian state from developing future oil cooperation with Iraq.

Tishreen newspaper interviewed Dr. Jack Mardini, former Rector of “Al-Furat” University in Deir Ezzor. He explained the reasons behind Washington’s theft of  Syrian oil.

He said that he doesn’t believe that the United States will simply give up the Syrian oilfields, not because it needs this oil, but because it aims at using this important resource as a means to put more pressure on the Syrian state, due to Syria’s strategic position and its notable reserves of oil and gas.

He clarified that the United States knows well that Syria’s oil and gas production is abundant in three areas. The first is in Deir Ezzor which included the country’s biggest oilfields, such as Al-Omar oilfield, which produces 80,000 barrels per day, Al-Tank oilfield, which produces 40,000 barrels per day and Conoco gas field, which produces around 6 million cubic meters of gas per day, in addition to several key oil and gas fields. The second area, according to Dr. Mardini, is in the south of the oil and gas-rich province of Hasakah, where the production capacity of the oil fields is around 350, 000 barrels per day.

Dr. Mardini added that Syria used to produce 406,000 barrels per day in 2008, according to the Statistical Review of World Energy prepared by “British Petroleum” Company. In 2011, the production decreased to 353,000 barrels per day and during the years of the war on Syria the production collapsed to only 40,000 barrels per day as estimated by a work paper issued by the International Monetary Fund.

He went on to say that in 2017 the so-called “Self Administration” and its military arm, the US-backed SDF militia, controlled the main oilfields in the northeast of Syria and along the Euphrates River where the US theft of Syrian oil began.

He explained that the United States and its mercenaries steal 82% of Syria’s total oil production and that since the beginning of October, 2022, at least 9 oil theft crimes were committed by the US occupation forces through smuggling 700 oil tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil from Syria to the US bases in Iraq. All this happened at a time when the Syrians were obliged to stand in long queues for hours in front of fuel stations.

Translated and edited by Hamda Mustafa