Isis Inc: Syria’s ‘Mafia-style’ Gas Deals With Jihadis

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October 15, 2015 12:49 pm

Erika Solomon in Beirut and Ahmed Mhidi, an independent journalist based on the Turkish border

The need for energy drives Assad regime into a deadly game

fter four years of war, Ahmed thought he had finally been given a break when he

landed a job at Syrias national gas company. Then he was assigned his newsupervisors: the militant group, Isis.

For $80 a month, the 25-year-old petroleum engineering graduate from Deir Ezzor spent

a nightmarish year working at the Tuweinan gas plant one of several that have in effect

become joint ventures between President Bashar al-Assads government and the worlds

most notorious jihadi group.

The plant is not far from a military base where Isis months

earlier had killed dozens of soldiers and displayed their heads on spikes. It was

Isis Inc: Syrias mafia-style gas deals withihadis

Isis Inc: Syrias mafia-style gas deals with jihadis - FT.com http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/92f4e036-6b69-11e5-aca9-d87542...

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frightening, but I didnt have a choice, says Ahmed in a phone interview. Like all

employees interviewed, he asked to change his name for his familys safety. For people

like me, you basically have no other work opportunities in Syria.

Isis and the Assad regime remain battleground enemies, but on Syrias gasfields the need

for electricity has forced them into a Faustian bargain.

Gas supplies 90 per cent of Syrias power grid, on which Isis and the Assad regime

depend. Isis controls at least eight power plants in Syria, including three hydroelectric

facilities and the countrys largest gas plant. The regime has companies that know how to

run them.

Syrian activists and western officials have long accused the regime of making secret oil

deals with Isis, which controls nearly all of Syrias petroleum-producing east. But an FT

investigation shows co-operation is strongest over the gas that generates Syrias

electricity. Interviews with over a dozen Syrian energy employees have revealed

agreements that are less about cash than about services something they may find more

valuable than money.

The business deals do not translate into a truce. The two sides continually attack one

anothers employees and infrastructure. The regime points to these clashes as proof that

such understandings do not exist. In a written statement, Syrias Ministry of Oil and

Natural Resources said: There is no co-ordination with the terrorist groups regarding

this matter. But it acknowledged some of its employees work under Isis for the sake of

preserving the security and safety of these facilities.

But others describe the fighting as part of a struggle for better terms, where neither seeks

to destroy the other. Think of it as tactical manoeuvres to improve leverage, said the

owner of one Syrian energy company, who met the FT but asked not to be named. This

is 1920s Chicago mafia-style negotiation. You kill and fight to influence the deal, but the

deal doesnt end.


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The worst part is knowing that once youre there, you belong to no one, he said. To

both the regime and to Isis, you become untrustworthy.

Like Ahmed, most workers sent to Isis territory are from Syrias Sunni Muslim majority,

who drove the revolt that spawned Syrias brutal civil war against the Assad family and

elites from their minority Alawite sect that have dominated the state. Many members of

Syrias minorities have supported Mr Assad especially since Isis overtook the rebellion

and branded non-Sunnis infidels.

Marwan, another Sunni engineering graduate who worked for the Syrian Gas Company

before fleeing the country this summer, says only minorities and Sunnis with good

political connections can secure jobs in government-controlled areas. Less fortunate

employees find little sympathy from the state company if they try to avoid a posting in an

Isis-controlled plant.

If you try and complain, they say, Forget about it. Trust me, its better in the Isis areas,people are happier there, Marwan, a bespectacled 25-year-old, told the FT.


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Workers say that in agreements between Isis and the regime, the Syrian state and private

gas companies pay and feed their employees and supply equipment to the facilities. The

two sides divide the electricity produced from the methane heavy dry gas, while Isis

gets the fuel products made from the plants liquid gas.

For example, employees at Tuweinan say its gas is sent to the Isis-held Aleppo thermalpower plant. When facilities are working there are frequent outages due to the

instability in the area the Tuweinan deal nets the regime 50mw of electricity each day.

Isis takes 70mw.

At most plants where the two sides co-operate, Isis gives its daily output of liquid

petroleum or cooking gas, and condensate used for generators to its own members

or sells it to locals. At Tuweinan, unstable conditions mean it currently produces about

300 barrels of condensate but no cooking gas.

Tuweinan is partly run by the Syrian company Hesco, whose owner, George Haswani, is

under EU sanctions on suspicion of dealing with the regime and Isis. Several workers

said Hesco sends Isis 15m Syrian lira (about $50,000) every month to protect its

equipment, which is worth several million dollars.

Michel Haswani, the owners son and a

manager at Hesco, denies this. He said that

claims the company pays Isis or

communicates with it in any way are not

true and imprecise. But he says that Isis

was partly running the plant.

Isis enforcement

Isis installs emirs who monitor operations

and negotiate with the regime through

mediators. There is an emir for the plant, a

religious emir and another from the Hisba,

the groups morality police. Workers say the

Hisbaemir at Tuweinan, known as Sheikh

Haseeb, patrolled the plant to enforce strict

Islamic practice. Anyone breaking the rules

would receive 75 lashes.

Sheikh Haseeb also allowed gunmen to

threaten employees. They particularly

targeted the plants two dozen Christians,


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even though workers say Hesco had already paid Isis a poll tax for them in gold. One

guy pointed his knife at an engineer saying, By God we will slaughter you like a sheep,

one Hesco employee recalled in an interview via WhatsApp. I never saw him or any of

the other Christian employees again.

The director of operations at Tuweinan, Taha al-Ali, was known as the Syrian GasCompanys mediator with Isis. A pious man, he was popular with his colleagues, but

workers say Isis members suspected him of being a regime collaborator.

When the emir discovered that gas was being diverted to Arak, a plant then held by the

regime but now under Isis control, he accused Mr Ali of stealing for the Assad

government. He was dragged away by guards. Workers say he returned disheveled three

months later, on the day they were forced to witness his execution.

He was accused of mocking Islam and being a loyalist of the regime, said one colleague

who recounted the event in a telephone interview. The gunmen shot him in the head,

one bullet each. Then Sheikh Haseeb came up and shot him in the stomach. It was

terrifying.

Workers say Tuweinan has continued to function despite the violence. But slowly the

number of workers has dropped from 1,500 to about 300 as many have fled.

Many regime supporters insist these dealings are necessary to preserve infrastructure

and keep the lights on, and some agreements are extensions of pre-existing deals made

with rebel groups that controlled the areas before Isis took over last summer. Theres no

conspiracy, but as the regime guys say, its necessary complicity, said the Syrian energy


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company owner.

Another oil company official who works with the Syrian regime, says juggling these deals

has become a preoccupation for the oil ministry.

Before it was [rebel groups] Jabhat al-Nusra or the Islamic Front. Nowadays itsrepresentatives for Isis, he told the FT in Beirut.

Not all Isis-controlled plants are as miserable as Tuweinan. Employees say treatment is

better at the Conoco plant in eastern Deir Ezzor. Syrias biggest gas producer, the plant

was named for the US company that first developed it. Employees say its emir, Abu

Abdulrahman al-Jazrawi, is a Saudi Arabian with years of experience who holds training

sessions and gives workers a barrel of condensate each month in addition to the state

salary. A barrel can sell for about $100 often more than their wages.

Many workers also say that even finding work at regime-controlled facilities is no

guarantee of safety, because they are targeted by the jihadis. Marwan worked at the Eblaplant in government-controlled Faruqlus, near Homs, where Isis blew up pipelines and

set off a car bomb that killed his manager in April.

Every day, we went over evacuation plans, he said. Im Sunni if I fled too quickly,

the Alawites would accuse me of being a conspirator. If I waited too long, Isis could catch

me.

The nearby Shaer gasfield, which produces nearly half Syrias electricity, was taken over

by Isis twice in 2014 before the regime recaptured it. Everyone working there


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RELATED TOPICS Isis, Oil

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disappeared and is presumed dead, according to Marwan and other employees.

When nearby Palmyra fell to Isis this summer, Marwan says many of his friends working

at Hayyan, near Shaer, wanted to flee. The army wouldnt let them. They said who ever

tried to run will be shot dead.

Back at Tuweinan, Ahmed found events like Mr Alis killing too much to bear. He was

one of the few people Ive met in life I would say was an amazing human being, he said.

A few months later, he and some other workers smuggled themselves across the border

to Turkey, crossed the Mediterranean, and trekked to Germany. All say they are now

considered fugitives for abandoning state posts.

Officials at the plant have been unable to find someone willing to replace Mr Ali. But the

deal goes on.

Inside Isis Inc.

Journey with a barrel of Isis oil How oil fuels the jihadi terrorists

Selling crude is Isis biggest single source

of revenue. Follow the progress of a

barrel of oil from extraction to end user

to see how the Isis production system

works, who is making money from it, and

why it is proving so challenging to

disrupt

FT investigation: the sprawling oil

operation run by Isis is almost akin to a

state oil company, one that has grown in

size and expertise despite all

international attempts to destroy it. It is

minutely managed and fundamental to

Isis survival


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Isis Inc: Syria’s ‘Mafia-style’ Gas Deals With Jihadis