How the U.S. and U.K. Are Redrawing Syria's Energy Map

The agreement signed last week between the Syrian Petroleum Company (SPC), the U.S.’s ConocoPhillips and Great Britain’s Novaterra ConocoPhillips — covering the development of new gas fields and the expansion of output at existing sites — is the latest move in Washington’s and London’s long?game for shaping Syria’s post?Assad landscape.

Rather than repeat the overt, Western?fronted reconstruction model used in Iraq, both countries have opted for a subtler architecture: powerful Arab states, led by Saudi…