Abdalaziz Alhamza “RBSS”
Raqqa province is known for its varied economy, it was a good contributor in the local Syrian economy, whether in the field of agriculture and livestock or in petroleum extraction.
After the Syrian revolution, real estate field has prospered due to the large numbers of displaced people coming from several cities toward Raqqa in 2012-2014, which has contributed in the recovery process of the city’s economy besides the trade with Turkey, which had a great impact on the economy through distribution foreign currency in the market.
When ISIS took over the city, the economic situation in the city became so bad. ISIS worked on draining and exhausting the city’s resources. The terrorist group was interested in Al-jazeera region due to its oil fields.
Although it is quite difficult to know the group’s gains of Syrian oil, it is estimated between one to three million dollars a day, which is about five thousand barrels a day 1.6 thousand barrels of them are from Raqqa.
These numbers raises questions about the customers. In particular, Syrian regime still gets oil in spite of the fact that all oil fields in Syria are under ISIS control; even the Iranian oil support did not fill the need which means that there are transactions between ISIS and the Syrian regime.
Some information suggests that Abu Luqman, the group’s governor in Raqqa, is the link between ISIS and the regime in the field of oil. Abu Luqman provides the regime with its needs of oil and gas, and sells the rest to Turkey in order to facilitate the process of purchasing weapons and crossing fighters or to get some intelligence information.
Al- habari and Al-thawra oil fields are considered as the most important oil fields in Raqqa province. These fields brought a great benefit to the region with the spread of burners that extract and refine the oil in an old way.
But when ISIS took over the province, the terrorist group controlled all oil fields; this was the main cause of the deterioration of the economy. ISIS continued extraction oil in the same old way until the International Coalition strikes in the summer of 2014.
In addition to oil, ISIS economy depends on the Euphrates and Baath Dams. The electric power generated by these two dams is sold to the regime.
As for agriculture, it plays the major role in the economy. The agricultural area is about 43% of the province and wheat is the most important crop in Raqqa.
ISIS has controlled the wheat silos in the northern suburbs; Ayn ISSA and Abulassi silos, before the Syrian Democratic forces and thus the group was able to control a large stock of wheat which was estimated about 600 thousand tons.
According to activists, ISIS sells limited quantities of the stored wheat to the regime. The group also encourages farmers to produce more wheat after the production went down to 300 thousand tons, not to mention imposing taxes on farmers and the massive rise in bread prices.
In the same context, livestock are in danger of extinction due to smuggling toward Turkey and Iraq.
One of the most powerful sources for the group’s economy is antiquities trade; ISIS looted all the archaeological sites in Raqqa and sold the antiquities, which mostly belong to the Abbasid era, to European dealers for millions of dollars.
The most important and dangerous resource is the human beings; the group has recruited a lot of people by taking advantage of their poverty and lack of job opportunities. ISIS used children to commit terrorist operations and used others in its losing wars.
