The terrorist organization PKK and its Syrian offshoot, the YPG, is reportedly using an oil firm based in northern Syria to move looted oil and natural gas into the black market, according to intelligence sources on Thursday.
The terrorist group, which has long occupied oil and natural gas fields in the eastern bank of the Euphrates river in Syria, is trying to sell looted oil from Rumeylan and Deir el-Zour to foreign companies in various nations through an initiative called Cezire Petrol Company, sources said.
The company, founded for this specific purpose under the PKK/YPG, has many subsidiaries conducting oil searches and production on behalf of the terrorist organization.
The oil trade in Syria is being helmed by PKK terrorists who were active in Iraq, the sources said.
The YPG’s so-called former co-chair Şahoz Hasan is also named as the head of the Cezire Petrol Company; he’s conducting talks to market Syrian oil to overseas companies.
Like many YPG officials in Syria, Hasan too was found to have operated in Iraq in the past.
Terrorist Hasan, who first joined the PKK in 1994, began operating under the YPG in 2011 when the Syrian civil war broke out.
Hasan served as the YPG’s "co-chair" between 2017 and 2020 and later led projects to generate funds for the PKK/YPG by selling Syrian oil and natural gas.
In a December 2022 letter to the United Nations Security Council, the Syrian regime accused the United States and the PKK/YPG of stealing the country’s oil and natural gas without naming the terrorist group, claiming that its direct losses because of attacks in the oil, natural gas and mining areas amounted to $25.9 billion, while "indirect" losses due to the disruption of production in the area have exceeded $86 billion.
Experts say the PKK/YPG, which manages to stay active in Syria thanks to U.S. military support, is aiming to finance its organization by selling oil in the black market through its subsidiaries in order to establish a permanent, long-term foothold in the region.
The PKK and YPG have controlled much of northeastern Syria since Assad's forces withdrew in 2012.
The regions occupied by the terrorist group in the provinces of Deir el-Zour and Hassakeh have the richest energy resources in Syria in terms of oil and natural gas. The terrorists continue to occupy over 70% of the oil resources in Syria with U.S. support.
While the terrorist group captured the Koniko gas field, the largest gas facility in Deir el-Zour on Sept. 23, 2017, it also occupied Syria's largest oil field, al-Omar, on Oct. 22, 2017.
The oil refineries in the country are under the control of regime forces. However, locals in areas controlled by the YPG have been suffering for years as the terrorists often deprive them of abundant fuel.
The PKK/YPG has been waging a bloody terrorist campaign in southeastern Türkiye and northern Syria and Iraq for years, attacking security forces and civilians. It has been single-handedly responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 people since 1984, with its massacres peaking especially in the 1990s.
By leveraging Türkiye’s southeastern border near the Middle East and drug trafficking routes in the Balkans, the Caucasus and Africa, the group has financed its bloody campaign through drug trafficking in the European Union, according to several reports from Turkish and international law enforcement agencies. The group is involved in all aspects of the illicit narcotics trade in the bloc, raking in over $1.5 billion by dominating 80% of the market.