Almost all oil produced in eastern Syria is stolen, minister of oil and mineral resources of Syria Bassam Tuome said.

His remarks came at the parliament's meeting, TASS reported.

According to him, last year, oil production in Syria reached 89,000 barrels per day, while nearly 80,000 barrels of them were stolen.

Most of the Syrian provinces located in the east and northeast of the country are currently controlled by the US-backed Kurdish democratic forces of Syria. Since 2015, the US command has established nine military bases in the area.

At the end of 2019, former US President Donald Trump approved a plan to keep several hundred American servicemen in Syria to ensure control over oil fields in the northeast and east of the country. Meanwhile, the US military presence in Damascus is viewed as an illegal occupation - accompanied by the looting of natural resources belonging to the Syrian people.