The Kurds have recaptured the largest oil field in Syria from militants. “Danger of direct collision”: who will get the oil fields of Deir ez-Zor Race for oil

The US-backed Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced they had gained full control of Syria's largest oil field.

The Kurds have captured the Al-Omar oil field near the Iraqi border. The SDF's official website notes that government troops "are located three kilometers from the field."

Race for oil

A race for oil fields has begun in Syria, says Senator Alexei Pushkov.

“The race for control of the oil fields of eastern Syria continues. With the help of the United States, the SDF captured Al-Omar. But the main battle is still ahead,” the parliamentarian wrote on Twitter.

The Al-Omar field was previously controlled by militants from the Islamic State* group, which largely existed thanks to revenues from oil sales. As Dmitry Feoktistov, Deputy Director of the Department of New Challenges and Threats of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said, terrorists pumped at least 25 thousand barrels per day from the Al-Tanak and Al-Omar wells.

“We believe that the physical destruction of IS*’s infrastructure is one of the most effective ways to combat the financing of terrorism. Thus, we were able to eliminate the income that IS* received from trading in petroleum products,” the Russian diplomat said during a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force Anti-Money Laundering Task Force (FATF) in Rome.

He emphasized that the militants, anticipating defeat and loss of territory, are trying to transfer money to European countries.

Infrastructure destroyed

The militants' panic affected not only financial management. At the end of September, it became known that terrorists had destroyed almost the entire infrastructure of large gas fields in Deir ez-Zor, and in Al-Omar it was completely destroyed.

“According to our data, terrorists have already completely destroyed the infrastructure at the Omar and Tanak fields, and some of the facilities in Konoko have been destroyed,” Amin Al-Hamid, the chief representative of the Syrian gas company in Deir ez-Zor, told RIA Novosti.

He added that terrorists blew up a gas pipeline in the southeast of the province, running from the Konoko gas station to Homs. According to the engineer, restoring the field infrastructure is possible, but it may take time. First, it is necessary to assess the damage caused, and this can only be done on site.

So don't get it from anyone

This is not the first time militants have resorted to such tactics. They did the same with Palmyra, one of the richest centers of ancient civilization.

Terrorists attacked the ancient city twice. After the first attack, Palmyra survived by 80%. The militants managed to destroy important ancient buildings, such as the temple of Bel and Baal Shamin, the Arc de Triomphe and columns in the valley of the tombs. The buildings of the Citadel of Salah ad-Din and the national museum also suffered at the hands of jihadists.

During the second attack, the terrorists destroyed the ancient amphitheater and the tetrapylon columns.

Director of the Arab Regional Center for World Heritage, UNESCO adviser Mounir Bushenaki said that the destruction that militants caused in Palmyra was revenge.

The Arab-Kurdish formations of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an organization supported by the United States, announced that they had seized control of the Al-Omar oil field in Deir ez-Zor province. According to SDF representatives, the facility was captured with the support of the US military and the international coalition during the fight against terrorists of the Islamic State (IS, an organization banned in Russia).

Al-Omar is the largest oil field in Syria, located 10 km north of the city of Mayadin.

Earlier, the Syrian government army, with the support of Russian aviation, liberated Mayadin from Islamic State militants.

Mayadin remained the last major settlement in Syria under IS control in the Euphrates River valley, as well as the terrorists' most powerful fortified area in eastern Syria.

“Assault units of the Syrian army under the command of General Hassan Suhel, having broken the fierce resistance of terrorists in the central and southern quarters, completely liberated the city,” the Russian military department reported on October 14.

The American president called the liberation of Raqqa a US breakthrough in the international campaign against the Islamic State. “We will soon move into a new phase that will support local security forces, engage in de-escalation of violence inside Syria, and promote conditions for lasting peace so that terrorists cannot return to threaten collective security again,” Trump added.

However, the Russian Ministry of Defense does not share the US joy from the victory over the terrorists in Raqqa. On October 22, official representative of the department Igor Konashenkov said that the “bravura” statements of the American side about victory in Syria are puzzling. He explained that Raqqa is a provincial city, where about 200 thousand people lived before the war, and by the beginning of the five-month coalition operation to liberate it, no more than 45 thousand.

“For comparison, Deir ez-Zor with its extensive suburbs near the Euphrates River was inhabited by more than 500 thousand people before the war, and Syrian troops liberated this entire territory with the support of the Russian Aerospace Forces in 10 days,” noted a representative of the military department.

Konashenkov also said that as a result of airstrikes by the US-led coalition, thousands of civilians were “buried” in the ruins of Raqqa. He compared the operation to liberate Raqqa with “the fate of Dresden in 1945, which was razed to the ground by Anglo-American bombing.”

“What, then, dictated such a rush by Western capitals to provide targeted funding for assistance only to Raqqa? One thing remains - the desire to quickly cover up the traces of the barbaric bombings of US and “coalition” aircraft, which buried thousands of civilians “liberated” from ISIS in the ruins of Raqqa,” Konashenkov concluded.

The position of the Ministry of Defense was supported by Senator Alexey. He agreed with Konashenkov’s words that the international coalition led by Washington bombed Syrian Raqqa, like Dresden during World War II. “Liberated Raqqa is like destroyed Dresden. They made us super hysterical because of Aleppo. But they did not stand on ceremony either in Mosul or Raqqa,” Pushkov wrote on his Twitter.

MOSCOW, October 22 – RIA Novosti. The US-backed Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced they had gained full control of Syria's largest oil field.

The Kurds have captured the Al-Omar oil field near the Iraqi border. The SDF's official website notes that government troops "are located three kilometers from the field."

Race for oil

A race for oil fields has begun in Syria, says Senator Alexei Pushkov.

“The race for control of the oil fields of eastern Syria continues. With the help of the United States, the SDF captured Al-Omar. But the main battle is still ahead,” the parliamentarian wrote on Twitter.

The Al-Omar field was previously controlled by militants from the Islamic State* group, which largely existed thanks to revenues from oil sales. As Dmitry Feoktistov, Deputy Director of the Department of New Challenges and Threats of the Russian Foreign Ministry, said, terrorists pumped at least 25 thousand barrels per day from the Al-Tanak and Al-Omar wells.

“We believe that the physical destruction of IS*’s infrastructure is one of the most effective ways to combat the financing of terrorism. Thus, we were able to eliminate the income that IS* received from trading in petroleum products,” the Russian diplomat said during a meeting of the Financial Action Task Force Anti-Money Laundering Task Force (FATF) in Rome.

He emphasized that the militants, anticipating defeat and loss of territory, are trying to transfer money to European countries.

Infrastructure destroyed

The militants' panic affected not only financial management. At the end of September, it became known that terrorists had destroyed almost the entire infrastructure of large gas fields in Deir ez-Zor, and in Al-Omar it was completely destroyed.

“According to our data, terrorists have already completely destroyed the infrastructure at the Omar and Tanak fields, and some of the facilities in Konoko have been destroyed,” Amin Al-Hamid, the chief representative of the Syrian gas company in Deir ez-Zor, told RIA Novosti.

He added that terrorists blew up a gas pipeline in the southeast of the province, running from the Konoko gas station to Homs. According to the engineer, restoring the field infrastructure is possible, but it may take time. First, it is necessary to assess the damage caused, and this can only be done on site.

So don't get it from anyone

This is not the first time militants have resorted to such tactics. They did the same with Palmyra, one of the richest centers of ancient civilization.

Terrorists attacked the ancient city twice. After the first attack, Palmyra survived by 80%. The militants managed to destroy important ancient buildings, such as the temple of Bel and Baal Shamin, the Arc de Triomphe and columns in the valley of the tombs. The buildings of the Citadel of Salah ad-Din and the national museum also suffered at the hands of jihadists.

During the second attack, the terrorists destroyed the ancient amphitheater and the tetrapylon columns.

Director of the Arab Regional Center for World Heritage, UNESCO adviser Mounir Bushenaki said that the destruction that militants caused in Palmyra was revenge.

“This is the last shot, if you like, that the terrorists fired. They seem to think: since you are recapturing this territory from us, we will blow up the monuments. This is a disaster,” Bushenaki said.

The development of the situation is in the special project of RIA Novosti " " >>

*Terrorist organization banned in Russia

The Kurds have captured the largest oil field in Syria, which was previously in the hands of Islamic State terrorists (the group is banned in the Russian Federation). Experts agree that oil is the only thing that interests the Kurds, while the Syrian army and Russian volunteers liberate cities from militants

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), whose vanguard consists of Kurdish troops, have taken control of the Omar oil field in the east of the country. This oil field is located on the eastern bank of the Euphrates near the border with Iraq.

While the Syrian army, with the support of Russian volunteers from the Wagner PMC, is liberating its land from terrorists, SDF units are advancing towards oil and gas fields in the province of Deir ez-Zor, where before the war Syria mined most of its black gold. Previously, the Omar field was controlled by militants of the Islamic State terrorist group (banned in the Russian Federation). Oil sales were the main source of income for terrorists.

At the end of September, the SDF captured another major source of resources - the Conoco gas field, also located near the city of Deir ez-Zor. At this time, the Syrian army and Russian fighters lifted the blockade of the city, which had been surrounded for three years, and then crossed to the eastern bank of the river.

Meanwhile, experts agree that only oil fields are important for pro-American forces, while Syrian troops and Russian volunteers from the Wagner PMC fought for Syrian cities.

“The Syrian military and the Russians needed to liberate the very important city of Mayadin,” said Vladimir Vinokurov, head of the center for military-diplomatic analysis and assessments of the League of Military Diplomats.

As a result, the Kurds had time to capture such important oil fields. Alexander Perendzhiev, an expert at the Association of Independent Military Political Scientists, agrees with this.

“Of course, this slowed them down (Syrians and Russians – editor’s note),” he said, speaking about the need to liberate cities from IS.

Vinokurov, in turn, noted that this oil field plays a big role for Syria. The Kurds are unlikely to share their spoils with the Syrians, and without oil the country simply will not have the funds to rebuild after the war.

“Of course it won’t. This is the largest deposit, although not the last, but the Syrians were going to take it,” Vinokurov said. Perendzhiev also agreed that the fight is about oil.

The city of Mayadin was completely liberated from militants on October 14. Russian soldiers from the Wagner PMC played a huge role in the operation. Meanwhile, the offensive against the remaining IS enclaves in Syria continues.