The company was established in 2017, reportedly shortly after the foundation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which is believed to own the company.[1] Watad had sourced petroleum from the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria until early 2018, when Turkey launched a military operation which cut trade routes between the Autonomous Administration and HTS. Watad then began dealing with an unnamed Turkish company which sourced petroleum from Ukraine via the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing.