US occupation soldiers in Al-Hasakah Province in northeastern Syria, October 2020 (Delil Souleiman/AFP)

The US occupation forces continue to steal Syrian oil, as they took on Saturday tanks filled with quantities of oil they stole from the fields of Al-Hasakah countryside and transported them to their bases in Iraq.

"Today, the US occupation forces took out tanks filled with quantities of oil that they stole from the lands of Al-Hasakah countryside, and transported them to northern Iraq through the illegal Al-Mahmudiya crossing," local sources from Al-Yaarubiah countryside in Al-Hasakah told SANA.

"The US occupation forces, with the help of the SDF, sent in batches a convoy consisting of 53 tanks loaded with stolen Syrian oil through the Al-Mahmudiya illegal crossing to their bases in Iraqi territory," the sources added.

On January 5, local sources from Al-Yaarubiah countryside in Al-Hasakah told SANA that "a convoy of 36 tanks loaded with stolen Syrian oil was taken today by the US occupation forces to their bases in northern Iraq, through the Al-Mahmudiya illegal crossing in the far eastern countryside of Al-Hasakah."

"Another convoy of 24 trucks and tanks, accompanied by US military vehicles carrying oil and wheat from the Syrian Al-Jazeera fields, was stolen by the occupation forces and taken out through the Al-Walid illegal crossing," the sources added.

It is worth noting that in mid-December, Syria's Foreign and Expatriates Ministry said in a statement that the US occupation forces and their affiliated military groups' systematic lootings of Syrian oil, wheat, and other national resources have amounted to direct losses valued at $25.9 billion and indirect losses valued at over $86 billion, SANA reported.

The statement clarified that the direct losses are comprised of "19.8 billion US dollars of looting oil, gas, and mineral resources, 3.3 billion US dollars resulting from vandalizing and ransacking of facilities. 2.9 billion US dollars the value of damages caused to the oil and gas installations by the so-called 'international coalition' bombing of these installations."

Syria suffers from a scarcity of energy sources due to the US forces' control, with the help of the SDF, of most of the Syrian oil wells east of the Euphrates.

Likewise, Syria's oil production declined sharply during the war years, from more than 380,000 barrels per day before the war, to about only 16,000 barrels per day reaching Syrian oil refineries as the fields are no longer under the state's control, but under the control of US forces and armed groups.

It is noteworthy that the US occupation forces have intensified their thefts of Syrian oil during the past months, as they took hundreds of tanks loaded with stolen oil to their bases in Iraqi territory, in collusion with the US-backed SDF.

Syria constantly renews its call on the United Nations to take urgent action to stop the United States' violations of international law, ensure compensation for them, end the illegal presence of US forces, return the oil and gas fields occupied by those forces to the Syrian state, and immediately and unconditionally lift the illegal coercive measures.