The Biden administration has decided it will not renew a waiver that allowed a politically connected US oil company to operate in northeast Syria under President Donald Trump's pledge to “keep the oil” produced in the region, according to a US official familiar with the decision.
The company was founded in 2019 by James Cain, US ambassador to Denmark under President George W. Bush; James Reese, a retired Army Delta Force officer; and John Dorrier Jr., a former executive with United Kingdom-based Gulfsands Petroleum. Cain, a onetime executive with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, has donated more than $30,000 to the Republican Party and GOP candidates over the years.
Trump's comments about Syria's oil frustrated critics, and some allies, who said the loose talk fed into the narrative that American policy in the Middle East was driven by US energy concerns and they argued it undercut US diplomatic efforts to press for peace and stability in the region.
A former US official familiar with the discussions said the administration has been communicating that it does not intend to renew the waiver but had not taken final action yet. This person was not authorised to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.The US decision to allow an American company to refine and market oil was denounced by Syrian regime of Bashar al Assad and ally Russia after it became public last August. "I like oil.
But when advisers floated the idea of keeping some troops in northeastern Syria to guard oil fields, it resonated with Trump. It also presented US military commanders – wary of entirely leaving the area – with a way to keep some troops in place.