Isis Inc: Syrias mafia-style gas deals with jihadis - FT.

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October 15, 2015 12:49 pm

Isis Inc: Syrias mafia-style gas deals with

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

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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 new
supervisors: 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

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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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rgy companies and the

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 thermal
power 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
Hisba emir 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 Gas
Companys 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 its
representatives 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 Ebla
plant 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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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: Syrias mafia-style gas deals with jihadis - FT.com

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