Why Makeshift Oil Refineries in Syria Are A Ticking Time Bomb | Risky Business | Insider News

Thousands of backyard oil refineries are scattered across parts of Syria, and displaced residents rely on them for fuel to survive. But working inside these hellish facilities is dangerous – and it's wreaking havoc on the environment. We went to al-Bab, Syria, to find out why these illegal oil refineries are here in the first place, and why they're a necessary evil for the people living in Syria.

00:00 - Introduction | A ticking time bomb
01:13 - A safe haven in Syria
02:03 - Inside the refinery
02:47 - How crude oil becomes fuel
03:15 - Cleaning out the oil drums
04:35 - Injuries from the oil field
05:34 - Health and environmental costs
06:08 - History of the makeshift refineries
08:17 - Why oil is a lifeline here
08:56 - White Helmets: Responding to explosions
10:17 - No other options
11:46 - Ahmed's horse stable
12:15 - Conclusion | Wishing for a liberated Syria

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#Syria #Oil #RiskyBusiness

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Why Backyard Oil Refineries in Syria Are A Ticking Time Bomb | Risky Business | Insider News

[marctatum]

I like how Ahmed, the boss, acts so concerned for the children he has crawling in crude oil waste and how unhealthy it is for them, but he can’t afford any ppe or ventilation fans even though he has a gated house, 12 horses, a stable, 2 suvs, and the trailers and trucks needed to take those horses to compete

[randallidell]

Just some quick math here. That man purchases crude for $70/B and sells the resulting products for $100/B. With his 3 refineries producing 1000 Barrels/day, his daily revenue, minus the cost of crude, is $30, 000. With a bare minimum profit margin of around 3%, his annual income would be approximately $325K. For reference, the average annual income in Syria as of Dec 2020 was $972. This man is many things-a business man, an entrepreneur, a refugee-but a victim he is not.

[gunstercz]

Petroleum engineer here with a few point based on very limited information
-->The sparks inside of the tank should not cause any significant fire hazard as the residues flash point is too high for it to ignite. You cannot even ignite pure diesel fuel with a spark until you heat it up to around 60 °C.
-->The liquid flowing from the tank is probably water based on the flow properties (any heavy residue oil would have very high viscosity). My guess is that they don't want to work with the dry residue as is because it makes a lot of dangerous dust when broken down. Spraying it with water makes it less dusty.
-->Gasoline produced from this will have an octane rating lower than 60 and it will absolutely obliterate your catalytic converter because of the high sulfur content. Even without the converter it will probably run very poorly.
-->Diesel produced will be surprisingly usable just the sulfur content will be off the charts
-->Not sure if i even need to state this but these conditions these people work in are absolutely brutal.

[Jonathan-tzss]

"It's super dangerous here, we cannot afford much" - smokes around the oil and makes 6 figures

[SRocco-dvwe]

“ I tell every child, stay away …….AND, sorry but I can’t install an adult sized hatch “ lmfao yeah right buddy 😊

[Yawgmoth]

"when we arrived there was nothing here" except an orchard and healthy soil. This guy came and completely devastated the area for his own profit.

[davidwarm]

They are not 55 gallon drums, they are10, 000 plus gallon tanks

[LookAtThat-wvis]

He is not a victim, he is making a fortune mainly because he employs children and cheap labor, because the people have no choice. 12 horses, your having a laugh, he has a better life than me in uk

[Ass_of_Amalek]

this guy really expects us to believe that he has a problem with lots of kids working in his refinery camp, when obviously their presence is contingent on him paying them or one of his employees paying them on his behalf? 🤡

I reckon if he didn't want to employ kids, he also wouldn't have had those boilers built with child-size hatches.

[Brognart]

Man is knowingly posioning those kids for his own financial benifit. Corruption exists even in the dredges of society

[OgOssman]

So they don't cost 50 000, because you can't buy them, they are literally using old tanker trucks and welding chimney pipes onto it, hence why they blow up. Not designed for tons of heat the metal weakens over time from the fire inside it.

[HomeDistiller]

They're awfully large for 55 gallon drums 😂😂😂

[peter]

So he makes 30k a day but can't buy some gloves and respirators for his workers

[SC-gxmr]

I love how they say the residue in the tanks is highly flammable and at 3:55 you can see sparks fly when they clear the tank out

[nuclearpenguin]

How does Insider continuously manage to make so many mistakes, large and small on almost all of these videos. They are so close to making pretty good informative content, but manage to taint it with slip ups and sometimes straight up lies. (Intentional or not)

[imoonset]

How do you go through the whole process of making bootleg refineries, but can't for the life of you think to use a screw, or scoop, or any other long handled tool to break up the Coke and remove it with an auger. Without going inside the tanks, and striking/sparking off the steel walls with pickaxes and shovels, not to mention the boss y'know having nice clothes, two cars, and all that.

[KekusMagnus]

I gotta say, seeing this guy employ so many kids and act like the victim does seem incredibly hypocritical. Maybe The Lion of Damascus isn't the bad guy in this situation

[Nobody-Nowhere]

They don't have 650 refineries to have fuel just for themselves. They are selling it.

[chrishoughton]

And im supposed to buy an electric car, and thats gonna offset that!?!?!😂😂😂

[mysteriousdude]

How do they manage to make Ahmed a victim here. Dude's living like a king in that area