Iraqi Government Agency Sells Kurdish Crude to Turkey

[longknife]

This is kind of surprising considering both Baghdad and Ankara are somewhat uneasy about the Kurdish efforts to fight ISIL and seek more autonomy. Read more @ Turkish Refiner to Buy Kurdish Crude via SOMO Iraq Business News

 

[Moonglow]

Maybe a new start, If the Kurd can get autonomy and somewhere to live....in peace...

 

[waltky]

Is what we're savin' at the pump payin' the costs of the war?

Despite US-led campaign, Islamic State rakes in oil earnings
Oct 23,`15 -- The Islamic State rakes in up to $50 million a month from selling crude from oilfields under its control in Iraq and Syria, part of a well-run industry that U.S. diplomacy and airstrikes have so far failed to shut down, according to Iraqi intelligence and U.S. officials.

Oil sales - the extremists' largest single source of continual income - are a key reason they have been able to maintain their rule over their self-declared "caliphate" stretching across large parts of Syria and Iraq. With the funds to rebuild infrastructure and provide the largesse that shore up its fighters' loyalty, it has been able to withstand ground fighting against its opponents and more than a year of bombardment in the U.S.-led air campaign. The group has even been able to bring in equipment and technical experts from abroad to keep the industry running, and the United States has recently stepped up efforts to close off this support. Washington has been talking to regional governments, including Turkey, about its concerns over the importing of energy infrastructure into IS-run territory in Syria, including equipment for extraction, refinement, transport and energy production, according to a senior U.S. official with firsthand knowledge of the IS oil sector.

Speaking to The Associated Press in Washington, he said international actors in the region were intentionally or unintentionally aiding this effort and called IS' management of its oil fields "increasingly sophisticated," something that has helped the group slow down the degradation of its infrastructure from U.S. bombing raids. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. IS sells the crude to smugglers for discounted prices, sometimes $35 per barrel but as low as $10 a barrel in some cases, compared to just under $50 a barrel on international markets, four Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP in separate interviews. The smugglers in turn sell to middlemen in Turkey, they said. The oil used to be smuggled in fleets of giant tankers but, fearing airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, smaller tankers are being used now. The Iraqi officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the press.

Smoke rises during a military operation launched by Kurdish troops known as peshmerga to regain control of some villages from the Islamic State group, in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Baghdad, Iraq. The Islamic State rakes in up to $50 million a month from selling crude from oilfields under its control in Iraq and Syria, part of a well-run oil industry that U.S. diplomacy and airstrikes have so far failed to shut down, according to Iraqi intelligence and U.S. officials.​

The Islamic State group is believed to be extracting about 30,000 barrels per day from Syria, smuggled to middlemen in neighboring Turkey. In Iraq, they produce around 10,000-20,000 barrels per day, mostly from two oilfields outside Mosul, Ibrahim Bahr al-Oloum, a member of Iraq's parliamentary energy committee and a former oil minister, told the AP. But he said much of the Iraqi production is not sold and instead sent to Syria to makeshift refineries the group has set up to produce fuel products. In total, the group is believed to make $40-$50 million a month from sales, the Iraqi officials said. A report by the Islamic State's Diwan al-Rakaaez - its version of a Finance Ministry - seen by the AP in Baghdad shows that revenues from oil sales from Syria alone last April totaled $46.7 million. The IS "finance ministry" report put at 253 the number of oil wells under IS control in Syria, saying 161 of them were operational. Running the wells were 275 engineers and 1,107 workers, it said.

Turkey's prime minister's office said in a statement to the AP that it has taken steps to tighten border security and "has effectively stopped oil smuggling" across the border. It said that as of the end of September it had prevented 3,319 acts of smuggling from Syria and that since 2011 it seized more than 5.5 million liters of oil in anti-smuggling operations. It did not comment on U.S. efforts to stop oil equipment and experts from entering Syria from Turkey. Daniel Glaser, a U.S. Treasury official, estimated IS oil revenues at around $500 million a year, based on evidence they made around $40 million in one month in early 2015. The group is also believed to rake in hundreds of millions of dollars a year from "taxes" on commercial activities in the areas it rules, said Glaser, who is assistant Treasury secretary for Terrorist Financing in the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

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