Oil theft the untold driver of Syria’s humanitarian crisis

Israel has entered into yet another never-ending war, with no exit strategy

Sanctions have allowed the country’s oil wells and refineries to fall into the hands of unsavory private actors

More than 13 years since the onset of civil war, the suffering in Syria has rarely been further from the headlines. Concurrent crises in Ukraine and Gaza have captured global attention. With the conflict largely frozen and the peace process stalled, awareness of Syria has been reduced to sporadic moments, such as the recent strike on Iran’s Damascus consulate. Yet the humanitarian crisis engendered by Bashar Assad’s brutal fightback against his people remains very real.

What is unusual about the humanitarian crisis in Syria is one of its key drivers: oil. Once a cornerstone of the Syrian economy, oil has become a source of misery for the Syrian people — affecting the environment, health and long-term prospects for recovery. International sanctions imposed on the industry in 2011 have had the unintended effect of allowing the country’s oil wells and refineries to fall into the hands of unsavory private actors, including the selfproclaimed Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria. According to statements from this group in 2022, more than three quarters of its operating budget of $780 million is made up of such oil revenue. The destinations for this illicit oil are difficult to trace but are thought to include the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Damascus regime itself. In short, vast quantities of Syrian oil are being stolen and the funds misappropriated, rather than going in any meaningful sense toward supporting the Syrian people. This also matters because of what it is doing to the environment in northern Syria and, by extension, the health of those who live there. This is the epicenter of a real and growing social crisis.

The groups that have seized control of oil extraction are unable or unwilling to adhere to proper industry standards of production and refining. Some of the refineries they have set up are little more than makeshift huts. This has led to frequent oil spills, which have contaminated the soil and poisoned northern Syria’s waterways.

As an investigation in pan-Arab magazine Al-Majalla found, the region lacks a facility for managing the byproducts and waste from oil refining, “resulting in its haphazard disposal, including by mixing it with water. Disposing of oil refining waste into rivers and canals has contaminated the soil with substances like arsenic, lead and mercury. These, in turn, are absorbed by plants and vegetables.” It is no surprise, then, that agriculture has been widely decimated, exacerbating existing food shortages.

The toll on human health is devastating. Exact figures are hard to come by, such is the makeshift and sparse nature of Syrian healthcare provision, but cases of cancer are increasingly concentrated around Syria’s oil-producing north — and have increased up to three times faster than the comparative period before the war. Cancer cases and deaths are expected to double in the current decade, according to the International

Atomic Energy Agency. Respiratory diseases and other health issues associated with toxic emissions are also rising.

One person quoted in Al-Majalla’s investigation, whose young nephew is battling leukemia, put the problem bluntly: “In the past, (oil) companies treated harmful gas and oil waste. Nowadays, no one treats the source of these cancer-causing emissions.” All told, oil is driving suffering across large swaths of Syria. But I believe it can also drive a radical and impactful solution. The UN’s humanitarian appeal for Syria for 2023 sought $5.4 billion but raised only a third of that. Compare that to the

$15 billion that Gulfsands, an independent energy company I advise, estimates would be available every year for reinvestment if oil operations were returned to the hands of legitimate parties. This potential is currently being squandered and stolen. It is time for the international community to implement a radical solution and help end this human tragedy.