Despite US-Led Campaign, ISIL Rakes in Oil Earnings
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant 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 US airstrikes have so far failed to shut down, according to Iraqi intelligence and US 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 US-led air campaign.
The group has even been able to bring in equipment and technical experts from abroad to keep the industry running.
ISIL 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 US-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.
The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant 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 ISIL'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 ISIL "finance ministry" report put at 253 the number of oil wells under ISIL control in Syria, saying 161 of them were operational. Running the wells were 275 engineers and 1,107 workers, it said.