Page 9 - MEOG Week 45

MEOG POLICY MEOG

US soldiers killed amid Syrian expansion

SYRIA FOUR American soldiers were killed at the previously about US involvement in the Iraq war.
weekend as their vehicle came under attack in “I said keep the oil. If they are going into Iraq,
the oil-rich Syrian governorate of Deir ez-Zor, keep the oil. They never did,” he said.
near the Iraq border. Reports have suggested However, in August a deal was announced
that the attack was carried out by Islamic State; it between the US-backed SDF and little-known
comes as the US is seeking to increase its military Delta Crescent Energy for north-eastern fields
presence in the region. under military control. The following month
The official SANA media outlet said that the Delta Crescent Energy received a sanctions
attack had been carried out using explosives on waiver from the Treasury Department’s Office
the Al-Hasakah Road. of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) and senior
The US is currently constructing a new mil- Washington officials confirmed that a deal was
itary facility at the town of Al-Baghuz in Deir signed to “modernise” oilfields under its control.
ez-Zor, which is home to most of the country’s oil Syria is home to proven reserves of 2.5bn bar-
and gas reserves. The new base, which is just 1-2 rels of oil and 241bn cubic metres of gas, with
km from the border with Iraq, will be the fourth oil production running at an estimated 15,000-
in the region, and the ninth in the east of Syria. 40,000 barrels per day. Before civil war broke
Bases have also been set up near the Al-Omar out in 2011 production was around 400,000
oilfield and the Koniko gas-processing plant. bpd. Numbers for gas are less clear, but the most
Military sources were recently quoted by recent verified data, from 2011, showed output
local media as saying that the US army had of 8.95mn cubic metres per day of dry natural
deployed fighters from the Syrian Democratic gas, and more recent estimates are just 3.4 mcm
Forces (SDF) near the new base to provide secu- per day.
rity. Meanwhile, Middle East Monitor quoted The SDF brought the Tanak oilfield back on
local sources as saying that the base would “face stream in August 2018, roughly a year after it and
sites controlled by Syrian regime forces on the the US-backed YPG took the control of the asset
western bank of the Euphrates River”. A helipad from IS fighters.
is being constructed to improve construction Tanak, Syria’s second-largest oilfield, is
logistics. located east of the River Euphrates, near Omar,
Late last year, a US defence official was quoted which is the country’s top oil asset. Tanak’s 150
by Kurdish media as saying that the US had existing wells are thought to be capable of 40,000
commenced “reinforcing positions in the Deir bpd of production, but information about the
ez-Zor region, in co-ordination with [SDF] part- asset’s condition has not been forthcoming
ners, with additional military assets to prevent since the SDF retook the field in November
the oilfields from falling back into the hands of 2017. Local media outlet Zaman Al Wasl quoted
ISIS or other destabilising actors.” sources at the time as saying that the oil from
During a news conference to announce the Tanak was being supplied to the Syrian regime.
death of IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in The SDF has held control over the country’s
October last year, President Donald Trump said: largest oilfields, including Omar, the largest;
“What I intend to do, perhaps, is make a deal Ward, Kewari, Jafra, Jarnuf, Azrak, Kahar, Afra,
with an ExxonMobil or one of our great com- Sueytat and Galban. Omar had been producing
panies to go in there and do it properly … and around 30,000 bpd prior to the Syrian Civil War,
spread out the wealth.” but was in the hands of IS from mid-2011 until
The comments echo sentiments he tweeted October 2017.™

Week 45 11•November•2020 www. NEWSBASE .com P9