U.S.-backed forces take Syria’s largest oilfield from ISIL militants

BEIRUT — U.S.-backed fighters captured Syria’s largest oilfield from the Islamic State group Sunday, marking a major advance against the extremists in an area coveted by pro-government forces.

With ISIL in retreat, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces and the Syrian government have been in a race to secure parts of the oil-rich Deir el-Zour province along the border with Iraq.

The Al-Omar oilfield was a major source of income for the militant group and is considered one Syria’s most productive. The condition of the field, which has been controlled by ISIL for three years, was not clear following intense coalition and Russian airstrikes.

The SDF, with air support from the U.S.-led coalition, said it captured the field in a “swift and wide military operation.” It said some militants have taken cover in oil company houses nearby, where clashes are underway. The U.S.-led coalition confirmed the SDF had retaken the oilfield.

After coming under heavy fire from ISIL, pro-government forces retreated from the area around Al-Omar field, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The SDF said government forces were three kilometres away from the fields.

Syrian troops, backed by Russian warplanes and Iranian-sponsored militias, have retaken nearly all of the provincial capital of Deir el-Zour, as well as the town of Mayadeen, another ISIL stronghold, which is across the Euphrates River from the Al-Omar field.

The SDF focused their operations in rural Deir el-Zour on the eastern side of the river, and have already seized a major natural gas field and other smaller oilfields.

ISIL captured Al-Omar in 2014, when the group swept across large areas in Syria and neighbouring Iraq. At the time, the field was estimated to produce around 9,000 barrels a day. Its current potential is unknown.

Syria had proven oil reserves of 2.5 billion barrels as of 2015, giving it the largest supply among its neighbours after Iraq. The oil industry was a pillar of the Syrian economy before the conflict in 2011.

As ISIL advanced in Syria, it seized control of most of Syria’s oilfields and made petroleum a major earner for the militant group, which sold it on the black market to other insurgents and the Syrian government.

Since the coalition began operations against ISIL in 2014, the militants’ oil production has been reduced from a peak of about $50 million per month to currently less than $4 million, the coalition said in a statement.