US Interests in Syria and Oil Theft
Introduction
The present article, while attempting to thoroughly review oil industry conditions in Syria, aims at shading some more light on the US vain attempts to secure its interests, to prevent the decline of its hegemony on one hand, and smuggling Syrian oil amid tensions in Syria, on the other. Moreover, through providing instances, the article seeks to prove that American intervention in the Middle East is mainly driven by oil to a large extent, but in different ways.
Background
Syria, among crude oil producing countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region, is the only country that produces relatively significant amount of crude oil. The countries in this region include Jordan, Lebanon, Zionist Regime, the West Bank, and Gaza. According to the statistics available, Syria produced about
400,000 b/d of crude and other petroleum liquids in 2010.Prior to being invaded by the ISIS, almost all of its oil was exported to Europe. Syria's natural gas was used in reinjection for enhanced oil recovery and for domestic electricity generation.
It can be argued that due to its strategic role in regional security and prospective energy transit routes, Syria is severely eyed by super powers. Regional integration in the energy sector is expected to increase as a result of ongoing plans for the expansion of the regional oil and gas pipeline networks connecting Syria with neighboring countries: Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.
In mid-March 2011, Syria faced problems emanated from ominous plots of the US, and led to unrest in the country. This was followed by the imposition of
sanctions on Syria by the United States and the European Union, and by additional sanctions imposed by the U.S. on Syria's energy sector in August
2011.
Having a glance at the history of Syria's oil production and exports figures, it can be noticed that it has had a falling trend since the mid-1990s. In order to increase its crude oil exports, Syria had to reduce domestic consumption through phasing out subsidies. However, getting involved in war with ISIS in 2011, the Syrian government was forced to prioritize kicking out the ISIS rather than eliminating subsidies.
Syria's Oil Reserves
According to The Oil and Gas Journal, Syria's petroleum reserves stood at 2.5 billion barrels as of 1 January 2011. Majority of its proven oil reserves are mainly located in the eastern part of the Syria near its border with Iraq and along the Euphrates River; however, a number of smaller fields are located in the center of the country.
Since peaking at 582,000 b/d in 1996, Syrian crude oil production (including lease condensate) declined to around 387,000 b/d in 2010, but the point is that heavy oil accounts for about 60 percent of Syria's oil production.
The largest and most mature fields are Al-Furat's Omar and the Jbessa fields, which reportedly had production capacities of 100,000 and 200,000 b/d,
respectively, in 2010. Other smaller mature fields, such as Oudeh, Gbeibe, and Tishrine, were under field rehabilitation contracts to China's CNPC and Sinopec, and prior to the unrests in Syria their production capacity was on the rise.
Foreign investment has been vital for improving production levels. The US sanctions had excluded U.S. companies from participating, and Syria worked with Chinese, Indian, as well as European companies.
Exports
Syria has three Mediterranean oil export/import terminals, all managed by the Syrian Company for Oil Transportation (SCOT). Baniyas (7 berths) and Tartous (2 berths) are larger ports from which Syria's two main export crude oil grades are exported. Latakia handles smaller cargoes. The terminals are connected to refineries through the domestic pipeline network.
Syria's net petroleum exports were estimated to be 109,000 b/d in 2010, down slightly from 117,000 b/d in 2009. Syria exported two crude oil blends, Syrian Light and Souedieh (or Syrian heavy); through its state marketing company Sytrol. Heavy crude oil accounts for about three-fourths of Syria's oil exports. Souedieh, heavy, very high-sulfur oil, was produced by SPC from Soueidieh and Jebeisseh, two of the country's oldest oil fields. Syrian Light is Syria's only light crude stream, and is a blend of production from the Royal Dutch Shell-led AFPC venture, and smaller amounts from Total's Deir ez-Zor venture.
Syrian crude oil exports went almost entirely to OECD European countries, in particular Germany, Italy, and France, and the Netherlands.
Pipelines
Syria has a developed domestic pipeline system for transporting crude and petroleum products managed by SCOT. Pipelines include the 250,000-b/d, 347-mileTel Adas-Tartous crude line linking SPC and other fields to the port at Tartous with a connection to the refinery at Homs, and oil products pipelines linking the Homs refinery to Syria's major cities. Two trans-national pipelines across Syria had been built to transport oil from Saudi Arabia and Iraq to terminals on the Mediterranean. The 500 ,000 b/d Tapline was built during the
1940's to transport Saudi crude oil to an export terminal in Lebanon, but was closed during the 1970's because it had become uneconomical. Proposals have been made to rehabilitate the Tapline, but the pipeline remains closed.
The second pipeline was built during the 1950's to transport oil from Kirkuk in northern Iraq to the Banias terminal in Syria and to Tripoli in Lebanon. This approximately 800 kilometer (500 mile) pipeline system had been re-habilitated in 2000, but closed in 2003 during the war in Iraq. Syrian and Iraqi ministers have discussed rehabilitating this pipeline, as well as building new ones. In June 2011, Syria and Iraq signed yet another MOU to repair the existing 800,000 b/d pipeline system, and to build two new ones, including a 1.5 million b/d pipeline to carry heavy Iraqi crude oil, as well as a 1.25 million b/d pipeline to transport light crude oil from Iraq.
Refining
Syria's total refining capacity was approximately 2 40,000 b/d as of January 2011, according to The Oil and Gas Journal. Syria's two state-owned refineries are located at Baniyas and Homs, which have 133,000 b/d and 107,000 b/d, respectively, of refining capacity. Syria faced shortages of gas oil and diesel, and needs additional domestic refining capacity to meet these needs. However,
foreign oil companies have been reluctant to invest to build new refineries in Syria without more support from the government. In December 2010, Venezuela signed an MOU to construct the 140,000 b/d Froklos refinery, a project which had been stalled since an agreement to establish it was signed in March 2008. Chinese officials had also discussed a long-delayed 70,000 b/d refinery project in Deir al-Zor, where construction was supposed to have begun in 2008.
Having access to a brief account of Syria petroleum industry, one can realize how important the strategic position of Syria is .Moreover, the question here is :" Why does U.S. try to maintain its presence in Syria ?"Although some analysts are of the opinion that the threat of "resource wars" over possession of oil reserves is often exaggerated, it seems that oil and its impacts have been constantly a leading cause of war, at least in oil rich regions. Between 25% and 50% of interstate wars, since 1973, were connected to one or more oil-related causal mechanisms. This strategic commodity has had such an undeniable impact on global energy security.
The influence of oil on conflict is not thoroughly understood. Public thought in U.S. debates about the main reason of 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars. Many observers focus excessively on the question of whether or not the United States was fighting for possession of oil reserves; but they did not seek a broader understanding of how oil shaped the preconditions for war.
Oil fuels international conflict through various distinct mechanisms; for instance conflicts triggered by the prospect of oil-market domination, such as the United States' war with Iraq over Kuwait in 1991 , clashes over control of oil transit routes, such as shipping lanes and pipelines. All these mechanisms may contribute to conflict individually or in combination.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper has recently said that Washington would send armored vehicles and troops to the Syrian oil fields in order to prevent them from falling into the hands of ISIS militants.
In a statement, Russia’s defense ministry said Washington had no mandate under international or U.S. law to increase its military presence in Syria, and said its plan was not motivated by genuine security concerns in the region.
“Therefore, Washington’s current actions - capturing and maintaining military control over oil fields in eastern Syria where major Syrian oil reserves are located , is international state banditry,” it said.
U.S. troops and private security companies in eastern Syria are protecting oil smugglers who make more than $30 million a month, the statement said.
Russia, which backs Syrian President Bashar Assad and has helped him turn the tide of a bloody civil war, has long insisted that the U.S. military presence in Syria is illegal.
Conclusion
Presence of superpowers in Syria and other civil war-stricken countries is in line with the competition with Russia to bolster their hegemony in the world and preventing power imbalance. To that effect, the super powers seek pretext to dispatch military troops to regions across the world, where the ground is paved, to maximize their political and financial interests, claiming they are to restore and maintain global peace and tranquility. For instance, The U.S. presence in Syria indicates the centrality of oil and economic interests of U.S. oil corporations to American intervention in the Third World, e.g. Syria. Recalling President Trump's statements about not being eager anymore to spend money on guaranteeing security of Arab countries in the Persian Gulf, and explicitly asking them to spend petrodollars and pay the U.S. for protecting them while highlighting Iran phobia; one may conclude that the U.S. is smuggling Syrian oil to offset the high expenditure of its military troops' presence in the areas where major Syrian oil reserves are located.Thus, it can be argued that American intervention is thus driven by oil to a large extent, but in different ways.