Free Republic

AMMAN (Reuters) - Islamic State fighters have seized the last major oilfield under Syrian government control during battles over a vast central desert zone, a group monitoring the conflict said on Monday. The Jazal field was now shut down and clashes were ongoing east of Homs, with casualties reported on both sides, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, without giving dates or more details. Syria's army said it had repulsed an attack in the same area but did not mention Jazal or comment on how much of the country's battered energy infrastructure remained under its sway. It said...

The fall of the al-Jazal oil field in the Homs province came after intense fighting with government troops, Xinhua quoted the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights as saying. ... The government had already lost the oil and gas fields in Deir al-Zour. Kurdish militants in northern Syria also control the country's largest Rmailan oil field. Clashes are still raging near the field, the Observatory said. The oil industry had been a pillar of the Syrian economy until the crisis broke out more than three years ago, with a daily output of about 380,000 barrels. ...

Up to 380,000 barrels of crude oil were previously produced by wells around the city of Raqqa and in the desert region to its east that are now in rebel hands - in particular Jabhat al-Nusra, the al-Qaeda off-shoot which is the strongest faction in this part of the country. Now the violently anti-Western jihadist group, which has been steadily extending its control in the region, is selling the crude oil to local entrepreneurs, who use home-made refineries to produce low-grade petrol and other fuels for Syrians facing acute shortages.