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Can the Kurds protect their oil fields in
Syrian Kurdistan?
14.2.2013 |
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February 14, 2013
ERBIL,— Can Syria’s Kurds use the oil
reserves in their territories as leverage to
strengthen their position after the fall of
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime?
Most of the oil-rich places in Syria, including the
Rumilan fields, are located in the Kurdish
territories, and some people believe that the fields
should be protected at all cost as an important
insurance for the Kurds in the future.
Located in Syrian Kurdistan (Western Kurdistan),
Rumilan produces 270,000 barrels of oil a day, more
than half of Syria’s total crude output. Syria’s
daily production of 385,000 barrels goes not figure
on the global energy map, but its total reserves of
2.5 million barrels are still reportedly 2 percent
of the world’s reserves.
Even though most of Syria’s oil lies in Kurdish
territories, no oil refineries have been built
there: The crude from Rumilan is piped to refineries
in Humos and Banyas.
“President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has oppressed
the Kurds politically as well as economically,” said
Abdulhakim Bashar, secretary-general of the Kurdish
Democratic Party in Syria. “The natural resources
are being transferred to other Arab cities for
refining.”
The oil fields discovered in Kurdish territories
during the 1960s led to major demographic changes in
Syrian Kurdistan.
“If it was not for the natural resources, the
current boundaries would have been a lot different
today.” said oil expert Rebwar Khinsy. “The Kurdish
residents around the oil-rich fields were forced to
leave and replaced by Arabs, so it remains to be
seen whether the fate of Rumilan will turn out like
the disputed oil-rich city Kirkuk in northern Iraq
after Assad’s fall,” he said.
Bashar said that, “Rumilan has always been part of
Kurdistan and it will not become Kirkuk. There may
be a couple of oil fields outside Rumilan where both
Kurds and Arabs live. Other than those, the rest of
the Rumilan oil fields are in the heart of Kurdish
territories.”
Syria’s infrastructure has been badly hurt by the
conflict between the regime and opposition forces,
which began nearly two years ago. Some believe it
could take at least 10 years to rebuild the country,www.ekurd.net
but add that the infrastructure in the country’s
Kurdish regions is still relatively good and was not
badly affected by the war.
Salih Muslim, co-leader of the Kurdish Democratic
Union Party of Syria (PYD), told Rudaw that, “The
Kurds support the fall of the regime, but they don’t
want to see the whole country go down. That’s why
they will protect the Rumilan oil fields.”
Abdulmajid Tamir, a member of the Kurdish Youth
movement in Syria, believes, “The Kurds must do
everything they can to prevent the Rumilan oil
fields from being set on fire.”
He said that the regime might hold its position for
several years and the Syrian Kurdistan might stay
independent during this time, so it is important for
the Kurds to take advantage of this and make
preparations to operate Rumilan, as everything is
still in place, except for oil refineries.
“The attempts by the Islamic radical groups to
control Serekaniye (Ras al-Ain) is mostly for
Rumilan,”
said Razwan Badini, a university professor. “They
try to infiltrate the Kurdish territories through a
multi-ethnic place like Serekaniye and finally
control a strategic location like Rumilan,” he said.
By Hemin Khoshnaw - Rudaw
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