In rebel Syria, makeshift refineries process precious crude

MAARAT AL- NAASAN: In a rebel- held town in Syria’s northwest, streams of crude oil are piped into a cylindrical tank to be primitively refined, capping a weeks-long odyssey from fields further east.

Over the past two years, nearly 100 makeshift refineries have cropped up around olive groves in Maarat al-Naasan, now a hub for processing precious “black gold” in Idlib province.

Bringing consumer products into the Islamist- controlled province is notoriously difficult, as it has been almost entirely cut off from government areas since Syria’s war erupted six years ago.

And smuggling goods across the closed border from rebel-backer Turkey is very expensive.

To keep cars, bakeries and heating units running in the province, Idl ib residentsturnedoilmen are trucking in crude from Syria’s northeast to refine it and distribute it to the population.

“We can’t bring fuel from regime areas or from another country, so we’re forced to refine it here,” says Jamil al-Nimr, the bearded 34-year- old owner of one refinery.

The primitive process yields “gasoline, kerosene, and diesel, which is then distributed to the local markets”, says Nimr.

But it first begins hundreds of miles to the east in Syria’s Hasakeh, a mostly Kurdishcontrolled province dotted with oil and gas fields – an arduous and expensive journey.

Barrels of crude are purchased from the Hasakeh fields for 47 each and an army of truck drivers then begins the weekslong trip back west.

“The journey takes between 20 days to a month,” says Abu al- Omarein, a 41-year- old truck driver.

Along the 400-kilometre (248 miles) route that cuts through Syria’s fractious war-ravaged north, they pass through numerous checkpoints manned by Kurdish and rebel factions.

At each checkpoint they must pay a toll and by the time they reach Maarat al-Naasan, they will have paid the equivalent of 17 per barrel in fees. — AFP