Jabisah oil field and facility near the town of Shaddadi in northern Syria were under ISIS control for two years, with the illegal oil trade being a major source of funding for the extremist group.
People living in the area say that before leaving the facility damaged and plundered, foreign ISIS militants made ample use of its oil deposits.
Ghazi Hussein, a resident of Hasakah province, who witnessed the terrorists having Jabisah under their control, said they were transferring oil to ISIS stronghold of Raqqa and then to Turkey through the Tell Abyad checkpoint on the Turkish-Syrian border.
“Then they sold it [oil] to Turkey in exchange for dollars and weapons,” Hussein said, adding that Syrian historical artefacts were also smuggled to Turkey.
The terrorists used hundreds of oil tankers they obtained after capturing the Iraqi city of Mosul to transport the illegal oil, the locals say.
“All the tankers were from Iraq. They were filled with Syrian oil. The oil was taken to Raqqa and then to Turkey,” another resident of Hasakah province, Amir Al Hajj, told media.
Jabisah oil field is one of the largest in Syria, capabale of producing 2.2 million cubic meters of gas and 80,000 barrels of crude oil a day.
“When we came, ISIS were here. They destroyed everything, stole oil and gasoline,” Syrian Forces told media.
“We, the Syrian Forces, came here to protect the oil fields for them to be used for the benefit of the Syrian people after reconstruction,” he added. interviewed
journalists interviewed an ISIS fighter who confirmed that the group was selling oil to Turkey.
In late 2015, the Russian military released a batch of evidence, including satellite images, of columns of oil tanker trucks moving into Turkey from the areas controlled by ISIS in Syria, RT reported.
212