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Syrian Kurds attempt to stimulate their economy through oil trade

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In northern Syria the economy is struggling in the wake of the Islamic State war, the Kurds of Rojava have resorted to the oil trade to stimulate it. You would think it is doing well by appearances, oil tanker trucks line the highways there. Their haul of oil has been gathered from the oil fields in Deir ez-Zor and are transporting it throughout the region to buyers from all over. Despite this, the oil trade industry in the territory is doing terrible. The years of conflict having engulfed Syria has left the regions infrastructure fractured and outdated, no investments have been made in Rojava’s oil fields and the battle for control of the territories vast natural resource has not come to an end yet.

Throughout the Deir ez-Zor region, pumpjacks from an older time churn up and down. In the distance pillars of black smoke rise from the archaic refineries that have been set-up. The refineries resemble something out of a Mad Max movie, comprised of scrap metal and adaptive Kurdish ingenuity. Workers from local villages move about covered in black mud as they work to separate and refine the crude oil, pools of it cover the ground around the sites. The crude oil is sold to private refiners who in turn give the Kurds fuel or pay them in return.

The well workers are local villagers and for the most part were farmers that were unable to maintain a living wage from agriculture alone. Maintenance is conducted using spare parts that are often decades old that were stored in local warehouses from however long ago. The wells are limited in numbers and supply according to Kurdish authorities so there is no telling when the oil reserves will be depleted.

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Comments

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  • Avatar
    James Walper

    Here in Canada, we shut down our pipelines and fight for made up genders.

  • Avatar
    Michouette

    That's an intriguing sort of environmental awareness there at the end. I'm almost convinced that the religion of rigid environmental protection is elitist and a first world luxury for the wealthy with enough time on their hands to worry about things other than day to day survival. (Or some utopian population living at one with a benign version of nature, like two people in the vast Garden of Eden.) But his version is more practical....recognizing the need to do something for economic growth in the region beyond the survival stage before they can afford the necessity of also protecting their quality of life and health. It's a tough balance even without the hovering threat of terrorists and unstable governments on all sides. Innovation is often borne by desperately cobbled together parts that have to keep moving. They may find a better way of doing things in that part of the world that no one has ever considered before (because they never had to.)

  • Avatar
    Joni S

    You have to give them credit much like Cuban's have maintained their cars with frankenparts, the Syrian Kurds are doing the same in the oil fields. I hope they are able to make a go of it. Though I fear it will be short lived in the Syrian government decides to reclaim them. Thanks Kurt for keeping us abreast with what's happening with the Kurds in both Syria and Iraq.

  • Avatar
    Susan B

    They are doing what they need to do to survive as a people and as a region. I have to give them a ton of credit for continuing to do whatever is necessary. I hope they catch a few good breaks to help them along the way. It seems they are putting their people's well being first. I'd like to think so, anyway.