Al-Monitor Interview with Gulfsands’ MD John Bell – Gulfsands’ comments

Following on from last week’s article in MEES, another great article was published yesterday by Amberin Zaman in Al-Monitor highlighting Gulfsands Petroleum PLC’s Humanitarian and Economic Stimulus initiative.

Following on from last week’s article in MEES, another great article was published yesterday by Amberin Zaman in Al-Monitor highlighting Gulfsands Petroleum PLC’s Humanitarian and Economic Stimulus initiative. Under this initiative, international oil companies would return to operations in northeast Syria, with allocated revenues from oil sales deposited in an internationally administered fund and disbursed to finance humanitarian, economic and security projects across the country – for the benefit of all Syrian people.

Such an initiative becomes all the more necessary – and urgent – as the politics of aid routes into Syria intensify. Our initiative proposes a solution that comes from within Syria itself – all Syrian people can, and should, benefit from their country’s national resource endowment, and carefully directed funds from oil and gas production could enable Syrians to build self-sustainability and resilience for the future. The energy sector is the only sector that has the ability to generate the billions of dollars necessary to make a real difference.

Developing the initiative will require patience and time, collaboration, careful consideration, and an open mind – we therefore welcome all feedback, ideas and thoughts to help make it a success.