Syria’s Al Omar oilfields offer apocalyptic scenes straight out of Mad Max: rusty cylinders, burnt-out oil tanks and bullet-riddled buildings rising from the deserted landscape.
In the distance, dark silhouettes of fast-moving motorbikes cut across the grey sky, as they gathered around an oil-spitting well, siphoning off the precious black gold hidden beneath the parched ground.
A few days ago, the Syrian central government regained full control over Al Omar, the country’s most important oilfield, in Deir Ezzor governorate after it had been run for years by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.
But retaking control is only the first step.
The grounds of the much-coveted Al Omar site are scattered with debris: metal scraps and rubble mixed with decade-old documents and technical manuals, rusty food cans and bullets. The site, which was bombed by the international coalition when ISIS controlled it, has been left in ruins after years of war, sanctions and underinvestment.
Waleed Youssef, director of the Syrian Petroleum Company, told The National that rehabilit
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