[jgeada]

"A long term drought contributed to the civil war in Syria". Maybe. However, two planned competing and mutually exclusive major oil pipelines, both routing through Syria, each sponsored by a different superpower, are likely to have led to the civil war even if the area had been an environmental paradise.

[Houshalter]

People weren't protesting in the streets against the regime because they were concerned about oil prices. They were upset because they didn't have jobs or couldn't afford food, and the countries around them were having revolutions first.