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Reviving Destroyed Oil, Gas Fields Begins in Syria’s Raqqa After Years of US Bombardment

Recovery works at oil and gas fields in the Syrian province of Raqqa as well as in the "triangle" between the freed provinces of Raqqa, Hama and Homs have begun, head of the state-run al-Saura field management Ali Ibrahim stated.

“The restoration of the fields will require a lot of work and the involvement of large companies,” he told RIA on Sunday, as all oil wells and the entire infrastructure at the treatment plants of the fields were completely destroyed, while the pipelines were partially destroyed.

Ibrahim stressed that the destruction was caused by the American coalition’s airstrikes, which bombed territories under the control of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) terrorist group and fired rockets at each well.

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In late July, colonel general Sergei Rudskoy, the chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said American private military companies, numbering over 3,500 personnel, are plundering Syrian oil facilities under the cover of the US-led coalition, TASS news agency reported.

“Aside from training militants, the US entities in Syria are involved in plundering oil facilities and deposits in the area across the Euphrates that belong to the legitimate Syrian government. Lately, US private military companies have been observed to actively beef up their personnel. Today, the mercenaries of the private military companies in Syria exceed 3,500 people,” Rudskoy noted.

The senior Russian general further revealed that US military companies are involved in the illegal production and sale of Syrian crude oil from al-Omar, Conoco and al-Tanak fields.

“A criminal scheme of Syrian crude cross-border deliveries is in effect. Actually, Syrian national wealth is being plundered,” Rudskoy added.

“All this activity by US private military companies is conducted under the cover of the international anti-terror coalition. In actual fact, this is smuggling business seized by the Americans from Daesh,” the Russian general stated.

Rudskoy then accused the United States of providing various Arab and Kurdish militia groups in Northern Syrian with different kinds of ammunition in exchange for assistance in the illegal trafficking of Syrian oil to the Eastern bank of the Euphrates River.

Back in March 2018, Sputnik news agency reported that the United States had begun the construction of a large military base in Syria’s Eastern and oil-rich Deir Ezzur province.

The US and its allies invaded Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting terrorism, without any authorization from the Damascus government or a UN mandate. Airstrikes by the Washington and its allies across the Arab country have killed thousands of civilians.

Damascus has repeatedly reiterated that any foreign troops in Syria is regarded as an occupying force and the Syrian government has the right to take all the needed measures to confront it.

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