In 2017, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) illegally extracted more than 55 million barrels of oil, worth $3.85 billion, from a single northeastern field known as Block 26. Syria has the potential to boost production from the current rate of 80,000 barrels per day (bpd) to as much as half a million bpd, according to John Bell, CEO of the British company Gulfsands Petroleum.  

Bell’s figures, for a single area in northeastern Syria, suggest that the total amount of oil and gas extracted and stolen by the SDF is consistent with figures the former Assad regime sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the Security Council since the Kurdish-dominated group seized control of northeastern Syria’s oil fields, with the help of the United States and the international coalition against terrorism.  

The Assad regime’s final such letter, from late 2023,* indicated that the damage to the oil and mineral sector in Syria amounted to $115.2 billion between 2011 and the first half of 2023. This included direct losses estimated at approximately $27.5 billion, resulting from the theft of 341 million barrels of oil, at an average of some 130,000 bpd, rising to 150,000 bpd by 2023. This is in addition to 5.9 billion cubic meters (M 2 ) of natural gas and 413,000 tons of natural gas, with a total value of $21.4 billion.  

The regime’s reporting also suggested it had taken indirect losses worth $87.7 billion, representing the value of the lost profits from sales of crude oil, natural gas, and domestic gas, as a result of the decline in production compared with planned rates under normal operating conditions.  

These figures demonstrate that the SDF is not entirely dependent on U.S. aid, which in any case had shrunk to just $130 million by 2025. Rather, the group has funded itself and its affiliated militias through the systematic plunder of oil and gas.  

Accordingly, it refuses to abandon this plentiful source of funds, and in its negotiations with the Syrian government, insists on continuing to impose its autonomous rule over northeastern Syria under the guise of “decentralization,” thereby maintaining its control of—and ability to plunder—Syria’s resources.  

In the current status quo, in contrast to the Syrian government’s weak resources, the SDF is the stronger party both economically and militarily. It is also capable of purchasing weapons and financing anti-government militias in Suwayda and the coastal region. This allows it to export oil and smuggle it out of the country, as with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, without consulting the central government and without effective oversight of the sector.  

Syria’s oil reserves are estimated at approximately 2.5 billion barrels, and its natural gas reserves are estimated at 240 billion cubic meters. This means that oil and gas is a key sector and an important lever of the Syrian economy, particularly during its post-conflict recovery.  

As well as generating revenues estimated at approximately $10 billion annually, it could play a major role in the country’s electricity sector, accelerating productivity across the rest of the Syrian economy, helping it recover from nearly a decade and a half of war.  

Today, the Syrian public only own around a tenth of the country’s oil and gas sector, and is deprived of the revenues and employment opportunities it should offer, due to the SDF’s control over most Syrian oil and gas fields. Therefore, the Syrian government is likely to place the recovery of this source of wealth at the forefront of its negotiations with the SDF, seeking to hold it accountable for the stolen funds, and making efforts to recover them and utilize them to reform the Syrian economy and rebuild the country.  

*Dated September 10, 2023, and deposited with the UN General Assembly as official document number (A/87/353-S/2023/660).