LONDON: After years under the control of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, Syria’s largest oil field, Al-Omar, and nearby gas fields in the eastern governorate of Deir Ezzor fell to interim government forces in late January.
It was a significant development that officials and industry experts say could benefit the country’s fragile economic recovery.
The interim government announced on Jan. 18 that the Al-Omar facility and surrounding gas fields had come under army control, after the SDF said it would redeploy east of the Euphrates River following more than a week of clashes in the northeast.
Days later, the state-run Syrian Petroleum Co. began restarting oil and gas production at the newly seized fields and routing output to the Homs and Baniyas refineries, the state news agency SANA reported on Jan. 24.
A company source told The Syria Report that oil production west of the Euphrates stood
