New Syria oil trade begins, despite political volatility

SULAIMANIYA - The Kurdish-led administration in northeast Syria has started sending crude oil, fuel, and natural gas to facilities controlled by the transitional government in Damascus, a sign of provisional cooperation between two authorities otherwise at loggerheads over how the country should be run and secured after the fall of the Assad regime.

Through a set of commercial deals started in early February, about 18,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude are being trucked from the eastern Rumeilan and Hassakah oil fields under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North East Syria (AANES) to Damascus-controlled territory, a senior AANES economic official familiar with the trade said.

Two other senior AANES officials confirmed the post-Assad resumption of crude shipments, but declined to specify the volumes involved.