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Syria’s oil ministry issued a statement on August 9, accusing US forces occupying Syria of stealing most of the country’s oil. “The volume of oil production during the first half of 2022 was approximately 14.5 million barrels, with an average daily production of 80.3 thousand barrels, of which 14.2 thousand are delivered to refineries daily,” the oil ministry statement said.
The statement said that “US occupying forces and their mercenaries,” referring to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), “steal up to 66,000 barrels every day from the occupied territories in the eastern region,” which It accounts for about 83 percent of Syria’s daily oil production. According to ministry data, Syria’s oil sector has lost about $105 billion “from the beginning of the war to the middle of this year” as a result of the US oil piracy campaign.
In addition to the financial losses incurred by the oil field, there were “human losses including 235 martyrs, 46 wounded and 112 kidnapped”, the statement said. On 10 August, footage filmed by a Russian attack helicopter was released to social media, showing a convoy of trucks operated by the US military smuggling stolen oil from Raqqa to Iraq. .
More recently, the US military, which is currently occupying Syria, has been continuously plundering the country’s oil and smuggling it to its bases in Iraq via illegal al-Waleed border crossings. Local sources in Syria’s Hasaka governorate said on 6 August that the US military had looted and smuggled dozens of oil tankers out of the country, making it the second oil shipment stolen by the US that week.
Washington has stepped up efforts to steal Syrian resources to sell abroad, and in July alone, nearly 200 tanker trucks loaded with oil looted by US troops were smuggled out of Syria. On July 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the US government to stop the continuing plundering of Syria’s natural resources. The US Army is also responsible for looting the country’s wheat.
