American-Russian competition over Syrian oil and gas

Abstract

Syria has an important strategic location in the Middle East, where trade and transport routes intersect between Europe and Asia. It also has large reserves of natural gas in the Mediterranean, making it a target for major powers seeking to control its resources. In 2009, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced the Syrian energy strategy, which aims to make Syria a regional center for the transport of hydrocarbons between the Gulf states, the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, thus being a link between oil and gas producing countries and countries importing these resources. However, all these projects were halted due to the war on Syria, which provided an opportunity for international and regional interventions to protect their interests in energy pipelines and international routes crossing Syria. Hence, the conflict over Syrian geopolitics and energy lines between Russia and the United States of America was one of the most important aspects that led to military intervention in Syria after 2011.

The conflicts over Syrian geopolitics and energy lines began in the aftermath of World War II, when the United States and Britain began expanding their influence in the Middle East, as the United States saw that Syria could become an important base for it in the region, especially after the discovery of oil in Iraq and Iran. It seems that the conflict over Syrian geopolitics and energy lines will continue in the future, as the major powers intervening in it seek to strengthen their influence in Syria, which will lead to continued tensions in the region and make progress in the political solution path dependent on achieving regional and international understandings about Syria's geopolitical and economic role in transporting and transiting energy.