Saved in September of this year. More pertinent then ever in light of the fact that the US and their Kurdish proxies are intending to stay and continue stealing Syria's oil. Denying Damascus badly needed rebuilding revenue.LinkThis report is from the Syrian Network for Human Rights- For the purpose this post we're going to focus on one aspect of this report. That is the Kurdish smuggling of oil- with no accountability- Not including their sales to Damascus. Which I take issue with for entirely different reasons. Reasons such as- this is Syrian oil. Which should not be controlled by Usrael Kurds at all. It’s the sales elsewhere we’re going to deal with. It’s a subject I’ve delved into previously. Though I'd be remiss to not state that indeed the sales to Damascus are also funding Global Terrorism- SNHR is mostly concerned with the sales to Damascus as a source of terror funding. Which they are. But so are the sales to Israel and others. Because Syrian oil went many places... I maintain still that this oil belongs to Syria and all of the Syrian people and should be used by them for cooking, heating, transport and rebuilding. Not to fund PKK activities.
" SDF has used the financial gains from its operations without any accountability or transparency, with a large proportion of that money possibly reaching the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is classified as a terrorist organization. This implicates the SDF in supporting and financing global terrorism.In this context, as the report states, in April 2019, several villages and towns in Deir Ez-Zour witnessed public outrage over poor service conditions; although this is an oil-rich region, its inhabitants have not witnessed the restoration of infrastructure or hospitals and have not been provided with basic services since the SDF took control of the region.This report highlights the SDF’s control of Syria’s oil fields, and its accompanying failure to disclose any information or show any transparency in revealing where millions of dollars in oil and gas sales revenues have gone and where these funds have been disbursed. As the report explains, the governorates of Raqqa, Hasaka and Deir Ez-Zour contain nearly 20 oil fields, 11 of which are under the control of Syrian Democratic Forces; these 11 fields have a productive capacity far larger than that of the fields under the control of Syrian Regime forces, meaning that Syrian Democratic Forces control 80 percent of Syria’s oil and gas production.The report relies on investigative and statistical reports by specialist agencies specializing in energy, and compares oil productivity between 2010 and 2018, revealing that the SDF oil fields produce approximately 14,000 barrels of oil per day.
The report calls on the US government and the governments of countries participating in supporting the International Coalition against ISIS to open an immediate investigation into the involvement of Syrian Democratic Forces in oil-smuggling operations benefiting the Syrian regime, which is on US sanctions lists, to ensure disclosure of all the money it has received from selling oil and gas since 2012 to date, to provide a financial statement on where and how the money was spent, and to stop supporting the SDF and the PYD fully and immediately if it is proven that they are transferring funds from Syria’s oil and gas revenues to the terrorist PKK. “the involvement of Syrian Democratic Forces in oil-smuggling operations benefiting the Syrian regime, which is on US sanctions lists, to ensure disclosure of all the money it has received from selling oil and gas since 2012 to date”
Usrael Kurds PKK/YPG has been smuggling oil since 2012. I am way less concerned about what they’ve sold to Damascus- for the simple reason, already stated, though it funds terror, this is Syria’s oil. Thanks to America, France, Israel etc., The Kurds have zero right to claim control of it, as they have. Additionally Damascus has used this oil to assist the rest of the residents of Syria- Providing them with much needed fuel. What I want to know is since 2012- how much oil and oil profits found there way from the SDF/PKK to the PKK at large. Enabling all sorts of benefits to accrue to a terrorist organization, of which the SDF is just a rebrand of. It's obvious that the smuggling would have enriched the PKK at large as America's terrorist hero. Mazloum Kobane, is PKK
Israel Buys Most Smuggled Syrian Oil......
“Kurdish and Turkish smugglers are transporting oil from ISIS controlled territory in Syria and Iraq and selling it to Israel, according to several reports in the Arab and Russian media. An estimated 20,000-40,000 barrels of oil are produced daily in ISIS controlled territory generating $1-1.5 million daily profit for the terrorist organization.
“Israel has in one way or another become the main marketer of ISIS oil. Without them, most ISIS-produced oil would have remained going between Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Even the three companies would not receive the oil if they did not have a buyer in Israel,” an industry official told the newspaper "al-Araby al-Jadeed."
Let’s go back to 2015 when it was reported at PFYT’s the Kurds and ISIS were the oil smugglers
Crude Oil and ISIS I would love that everyone read the above linked pdf- But if you don’t wish to read all 16 pages please go to the conclusions drawn and read there. Pg 12 of 16 “The authors of this paper would like to make it clear from the very beginning that this has not been the case of a ‘smoking gun’. The evidence has been inconclusive. But even if volumes of ISIS crude found their way, beyond any reasonable doubt, to the international crude oil markets via the Ceyhan terminal, this fact would not conclusively point to collusion between the Turkish authorities and the shadow network of smugglers, let alone ISIS operatives" Who is shipping this oil from Iraq into Turkey- The Kurds Iraq has warned buyers of crude oil that any unauthorized oil purchases made from its territory could be used to fund activities by the extremist militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). In a statement on Wednesday, Iraq’s Oil Ministry said: “International purchasers [of crude oil] and other market participants should be aware that any oil exports made without the authorization of the Ministry of Oil may contain crude oil originating from fields under the control of [ISIS]. The only seller of Iraqi crude oil authorized by the Ministry of Oil is [Iraq’s state-owned oil company] SOMO.” Speaking on condition of anonymity, an informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that ISIS was indeed selling Iraqi crude from captured refineries and oilfields. He said the crude was being sold to Kurdish traders in the border regions straddling Iraq, Iran and Syria, and was being shipped to Pakistan where it was being sold “for less than half its original price.” He added that many oilfields and refineries in the country remained outside government control. Excerpt from FT's
Since May, the Kurds have taken matters into their own hands and sold almost 40m barrels of oil to traders via the Turkish port of Ceyhan, all shipped via pipeline, providing Erbil with vital funds as they battle Islamist militants and shelter hundreds of thousands of refugees.Syrian Kurds earning millions in Oil Revenue- stealing Syria's oil “Syrian Kurdistan has been exporting its oil from the Rmeilan refinery using a pipeline built by the Baath party government,” Iraqi Kurdish Rudaw news reported Monday. “[The oil is then] transferred to the Alyuka refinery in the [Iraqi Kurdish] Zumar area, from there to Fishkhabour, and then on to Turkey’s Ceyhan port.” A “well informed source” told the agency that “the revenue from importing this oil exceeds $10 million” a month, a massive boon for the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) that has overseen a dramatic expansion of territory as Kurdish troops have rolled back ISIS in recent months.Arab Weekly- Syria's Oil and Gas Wealth being Shared by Kurds and ISIS- Yet more of that KurdIShIS symbiosis! Syria’s oil and gas wealth is being shared by ISIS and Kurdish armed groups, which heavily rely on it to finance war efforts.
At least 60% of Syria’s oil installations are in the east and north-east, in the areas around Raqqa, the capital of ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate, Deir ez-Zor on the Iraqi border and the Kurdish-held area of Al-Hasakah. These have been exploited by Islamist opposition groups and Kurdish militias for two years now. Syria’s oil and gas wealth is being shared by ISIS and Kurdish armed groups, which heavily rely on it to finance war efforts, according to an oil worker in al-Hasakah who spoke to The Arab Weekly on condition of anonymity. “The Kurds control 274 fields, producing some 40,000 bar-rels of oil per day (bpd) in addition to 397,000 cubic metres of gas,” he said. ISIS tightened its grip on the fields in the southern part of al-Hasakah after evicting the Free Syrian Army and other Islamic opposition groups. Some of the largest oil and gas fields — Shadadi, Marcada and al- Hol — are in ISIS-controlled terri-tory. According to an oil employee who asked to be identified as JJ, some 419 oil fields producing more than 35,000 bpd and 67 gas fields with a daily production of 1 million cubic metres are controlled by ISIS.
" The residents of the town of al-Hassin launched popular protests against SDF in Eastern Deir Ezzur by blocking the roads to SDF's oil tankers destined to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region from Hasaka, the Arabic-language al-Youm reported."
This was apparent in 2015. It was the PKK/ISIS shipping Syrian oil out- through Iraq’s Kurdish area by way of Northern Iraq through the Ceyhan pipeline- With it going onto Israel and elsewhere.- Check the external links in the years old post. Relinked, dated 2015, above. It appears they are continuing to steal Syrian oil and exchange it for Usrael arms.
"In a relevant development on Saturday, the US-backed Kurdish militants received state-of-the-art weapons and military equipment, including Israeli arms in Eastern Euphrates, the Arabic-language media reports said. It noted that the said military shipment included advanced missiles, US air defense systems, Israeli anti-Tank Spike missiles, shoulder-mounted surface-to-air Stinger missiles and drones.