USA: the citizens of northeast Syria controls their own oil

Shafaq News / The United States has defended an American company entering into an oil contract with the Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls northeastern Syria.

"The United States government does not own, control or manage the oil resources in Syria," Jim Jeffrey, the US envoy to Syria, said during a press conference.

He added, "I can assure you that those who control the oil region are the citizens of northeast Syria and no one else."

The largest part of the oil fields in eastern and northeastern Syria are still outside the control of Damascus, and are mainly controlled by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, and oil revenues represent the main source of revenues for the Kurdish Autonomous Administration (Rojava) that controls these areas.

Last week, Damascus denounced this agreement, which has not yet been commented neither by Rojava nor the Syrian Democratic Forces.

However, officials in Washington talked about an agreement to "develop oil fields" without mentioning the name of the American company, which media said was "Delta Crescent Energy".

US President Donald Trump had reversed his decision to withdraw all American soldiers from northeastern Syria and ordered that a few hundred of them remain “where there is oil”.

Syria's oil production before the outbreak of the conflict in 2011 was about 400,000 barrels per day.

However, the sector suffered major losses, and most of the oil and gas fields are still under the control of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the north and east of the country.