In 2018 the company was granted the ability to hold a monopoly over the importation and regulation of fuel in areas held by the HTS-linked Syrian Salvation Government which also managed the Bab al-Hawa Border Crossing, Watad has been granted by the Salvation Government the sole right to import petroleum from the crossing and purchases the petroleum from neighboring Turkey from an unnamed company that sources its petroleum from Ukraine, and began dealing with this company after the Turkish military began a military operation in 2018 targeting the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria where petroleum was originally sourced from, as the Turkish military operation caused the Autonomous Administration to cease petroleum sales to Turkey where the petroleum would then be rerouted to Idlib, and also cutoff the trade route between HTS held territories and the Autonomous Administration that would sell petroleum from northeastern Syria.