Months after Trump vowed to "secure the oil" in Syria, a shadowy US company has inked a contract with Kurdish authorities to develop and export the region’s crude oil under a secretive deal approved by the U.S. government. W/ @bjlefebvre @woodruffbets politico.com/news/2020/08/0…
The little-known firm, Delta Crescent Energy LLC, is helmed by politically connected ex-military and diplomatic officials: former U.S. ambassador to Denmark James Cain; former Delta Force officer James Reese; and John P. Dorrier Jr., a former exec at GulfSand Petroleum
The deal has been in the works for more than a year but only received a license from the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for it in April.
The arrangement is to refine and use some of the oil locally but also export some through northern Iraq and Turkey.
“The goal is to get the production back up to where it was before the civil war and sanctions,” said Cain “It was very much our effort to keep [DoS] advised - not seeking approval - but wanting to know if this was contrary to American policy interest. Nobody told us no.”
The agreement has already angered the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which does not recognize the Kurdish authorities as autonomous.
The Syrian Foreign Minister called the deal illegal and said it is aimed at “stealing” Syria’s crude.
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