Syrians Open Backyard Refineries as Civil War Reaches Oil
This article is for subscribers only.
In an open field northeast of the Syrian city of Aleppo, teenagers set fires under large vats of crude oil and siphon the byproducts into jerry cans.
The scene, captured on footage and uploaded onto YouTube, shows a young man walking around fires and through smoke near the town of Al Bab, explaining the production of mazut, used for home heating, and diesel at his homemade refinery.