Syria Oil-For-Aid Initiative: Can It Gain Traction?

1 Jul 2022 Issue: 65 / 26 By: James Cockayne

London-based independent Gulfsands has had zero production since 2011. With the firm’s sole assets frozen in Syria, it is trying to drum up interest in an oil-for-aid program that would see itself and other foreign producers return to their fields. The Syrian state’s share of proceeds from the resultant output would go to a UN-administered humanitarian fund. Amid memories of Iraq’s corruption-tainted oil-for-aid program, the initiative has to date gained little traction – either diplomatically, or among other firms estranged from their Syrian assets. With the US desperate for any boost to global oil output to bring down pump prices, could that change?

This article has been edited from the originally-published version (see bottom of page).

With war in Syria now in its 12th year, London-based Syria-focused Gulfsands Petroleum is calling for a “win-win-win” humanitarian initiative that would see it and other international oil companies who declared force majeure and quit Syria in 2011 regain control of their assets. Rather than flow to the sanctioned government in Damascus, the Gulfsands initiative would see revenues from oil sales pass to a UN-controlled fund. (CONTINUED - 2916 WORDS)