The Islamic State has stolen some 50 million barrels of Syrian oil during the four-year civil war in the country, the press service of the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources said Friday.
DAMASCUS (Sputnik) — The press service said that terrorist groups controlled the number of oil fields in country’s provinces of Raqqah, Homs, Al-Hasakah and Deir ez-Zor, adding that the majority of these fields were on the territory, occupied by the ISIL militants.
“Overall amount of the oil stolen from the fields from the beginning of the crisis to November, 2015,… reached 48 million barrels,” the press service told RIA Novosti.
According to the ministry, Syria has lost some $46 billion of oil revenues during the crisis.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, ISIL, which is outlawed in in the country, earns around $2 billion annually selling oil from the occupied territories, spending these funds on hiring militants from around the world and equipping them with weapons.