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Biden administration poised to ax US oil company’s waiver for Kurdish-led northeast Syria

The decision to withdraw the waiver to produce and sell oil in Syria has been presented by administration officials as a policy correction, not a shift.
A man drives a motorcycle past a makeshift refinery using burners to distill crude oil in the village of Bishiriya in the countryside near the town of Qahtaniya west of Rumaylan (Rmeilan) in Syria's Kurdish-controlled northeastern Hasakeh province, on July 19, 2020.
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The Biden administration has decided to not extend a sanctions waiver granted by the Trump administration in April 2020 to a little-known American oil company to operate in northeast Syria, according to well-informed sources who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition they not be cited by name.

Delta Crescent Energy, whose waiver expired April 30, has been given a 30-day grace period to wind down its activities in northeast Syria. The US-protected area is governed by the Kurdish-run autonomous administration of northeast Syria, which is not recognized by Damascus. A Delta Crescent Energy spokesperson insisted in emailed comments to Al-Monitor, "The Office for Foreign Assets Control extended our license. No wind down period."

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