Monday, August 31, 2020

A war for oil


A secretive agreement has been struck between a US oil company, Delta Crescent Energy, and the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in North Eastern Syria in order to develop and export the region's oil. The pact has been approved directly by the US government. During a committee hearing in Washington, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo whether the Trump administration was in favour of the deal or not. 

"We are," Pompeo responded during the hearing. "The deal took a little longer ... than we had hoped, and now we’re in implementation."

Delta Crescent Energy, little known company at the heart of this agreement is led by former US government officials and includes James Reese, an ex officer in the Army’s elite Delta Force; former US ambassador to Denmark James Cainand and John P. Dorrier Jr., a former executive at GulfSands Petroleum, a UK based company that had previously worked in northeastern Syria. The former political insiders now leading Delta Crescent Energy were helped in sealing the deal by the US State Department, which, in turn, helped to broker it.  

Reese, one of the partners of Delta Crescent Energy, has been a strong advocate of US military presence in Syria. In 2018, he declared on Fox News "We own the whole eastern part of Syria...That's ours. We can't give that up."

Trump contradicted officials by suggesting that US forces were there “only for the oil” and vowing that it would “secure the oil”, the controversial deal lays bare the American strategy in the region. 

https://www.trtworld.com/magazine/trump-administration-approves-the-stealing-of-syria-s-oil-38641

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