DAMASCUS (Dispatches) — In a brazen display of opportunism, the United States is leveraging sanctions relief to strong-arm Syria into abandoning Russian oil — while simultaneously positioning American energy giants to revive the very fields U.S. troops spent years plundering.
Syria has agreed to slash Russian crude imports, which surged 75% this year to approximately 60,000 barrels per day, in exchange for Washington’s pledge to remove Damascus from the state sponsors of terrorism list, a designation held since 1979.
American officials made clear that halting Russian deliveries would “raise the chances of removing the terrorism status quickly and without complications.” Damascus, desperate for sanctions relief, has agreed to diversify its supply sources — effectively trading Moscow for Washington.
At the same time, Syria has signed an agreement with ConocoPhillips and Novaterra Energy to revive gas production at the Conoco field in Deir ez-Zor province — the very assets .U.S forces and Kurdish allies seized and systematically looted throughout the war.
From 2014 until Assad’s fall, American troops occupied Syria’s oil-rich northeast, controlling the al-Omar field — the country’s largest — and the Conoco gas field. Syrian officials took the matter to the UN Security Council, describing U.S. actions as “naked resource theft.” By 2021, Syrian oil production stood at approximately 85,900 barrels per day, of which 70,000 barrels were looted by American forces and their proxies — totaling $100.5 billion in economic losses.
Local residents in Hasakah province stated bluntly that the U.S. entered Syria “in the name of counterterrorism, but its real goal is to plunder Syrian resources.”
With Assad gone and a new takfiri-led administration in Damascus, Washington has reversed course. The same regime which the U.S. had claimed to be fighting is now negotiating to have American companies revive the country’s battered energy sector.
The ConocoPhillips deal, signed in June, aims to increase gas production by 4 to 5 million cubic meters per day within a year. French energy giant TotalEnergies has also held talks regarding offshore exploration contracts in July.
Congress has directed the Pentagon to evaluate strategies to diminish Moscow’s influence and facilitate the withdrawal of Russian forces from Tartus naval facility and Khmeimim airbase.
Syria has agreed to cut Russian imports — a move that serves Washington’s geopolitical interests far more than it serves Damascus under former Al-Qaeda deputy Abu Muhammad al-Jolani.