Page 27 - ATD24OCT2015

CLASSIFIED A27
Saturday 24 October 2015

Despite US-led campaign, Islamic State rakes in oil earnings

The Islamic State group is tember it had prevented fice of Terrorism and Finan-
believed to be extracting 3,319 acts of smuggling cial Intelligence.
about 30,000 barrels per from Syria and that since That income is on top of
day from Syria, smuggled 2011 it seized more than the money that the mili-
to middlemen in neighbor- 5.5 million liters of oil in anti- tants first looted from the
ing Turkey. In Iraq, they pro- smuggling operations. It Iraqi central bank branch
duce around 10,000-20,000 did not comment on U.S. in the city of Mosul when
barrels per day, mostly from efforts to stop oil equip- they seized it in the sum-
two oilfields outside Mosul, ment and experts from en- mer of 2014 and other
Ibrahim Bahr al-Oloum, a tering Syria from Turkey. bank branches, which “at
member of Iraq’s parlia- Daniel Glaser, a U.S. Trea- the time was thought to be
mentary energy commit- sury official, estimated IS anywhere between $500
tee and a former oil minis- oil revenues at around million dollars to up to $1
ter, told the AP. But he said $500 million a year, based billion,” Glaser told the AP.
much of the Iraqi produc- on evidence they made
FILE - In this file photo released on May 4, 2015, on a militant tion is not sold and instead around $40 million in one
website, which has been verified and is consistent with other sent to Syria to makeshift month in early 2015. The
AP reporting, Islamic State militants pass by a convoy in Tel refineries the group has set group is also believed to
Abyad, northeast Syria. The Islamic State rakes in up to $50 mil- up to produce fuel prod- rake in hundreds of mil-
lion a month from selling crude from oilfields under its control ucts. lions of dollars a year from
in Iraq and Syria, part of a well-run oil industry that U.S. diplo- In total, the group is be- “taxes” on commercial ac-
macy and airstrikes have so far failed to shut down, according lieved to make $40-$50 mil- tivities in the areas it rules,
to Iraqi intelligence and U.S. officials. lion a month from sales, the said Glaser, who is assistant
Iraqi officials said. A report Treasury secretary for Ter-
(Militant website via AP, File) by the Islamic State’s Di- rorist Financing in the Of-
wan al-Rakaaez — its ver-
HAMZA HENDAWI structure into IS-run territory sion of a Finance Ministry —
in Syria, including equip- seen by the AP in Baghdad
QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA ment for extraction, refine- shows that revenues from
ment, transport and ener- oil sales from Syria alone
Associated Press gy production, according last April totaled $46.7 mil-
to a senior U.S. official with lion. The IS “finance minis-
BAGHDAD (AP) — The Is- firsthand knowledge of the try” report put at 253 the
IS oil sector. number of oil wells under IS
lamic State rakes in up to Speaking to The Associat- control in Syria, saying 161
ed Press in Washington, he of them were operational.
$50 million a month from said international actors in Running the wells were 275
the region were intention- engineers and 1,107 work-
selling crude from oilfields ally or unintentionally aid- ers, it said.
ing this effort and called Turkey’s prime minister’s
under its control in Iraq and IS’ management of its oil office said in a statement
fields “increasingly sophis- to the AP that it has taken
Syria, part of a well-run in- ticated,” something that steps to tighten border se-
has helped the group slow curity and “has effectively
dustry that U.S. diplomacy down the degradation of stopped oil smuggling”
its infrastructure from U.S. across the border. It said
and airstrikes have so far bombing raids. He spoke that as of the end of Sep-
on condition of anonymity
failed to shut down, ac- because he was not au-
thorized to talk to the press.
cording to Iraqi intelligence IS sells the crude to smug-
glers for discounted prices,
and U.S. officials. sometimes $35 per barrel
but as low as $10 a barrel in
Oil sales — the extremists’ some cases, compared to
just under $50 a barrel on
largest single source of international markets, four
Iraqi intelligence officials
continual income — are a told the AP in separate in-
terviews. The smugglers in
key reason they have been turn sell to middlemen in
Turkey, they said. The oil
able to maintain their rule used to be smuggled in
fleets of giant tankers but,
over their self-declared fearing airstrikes by the U.S.-
led coalition, smaller tank-
“caliphate” stretching ers are being used now.
The Iraqi officials spoke on
across large parts of Syria condition of anonymity be-
cause they were not au-
and Iraq. With the funds to thorized to brief the press.

rebuild infrastructure and

provide the largesse that

shore up its fighters’ loy-

alty, it has been able to

withstand ground fighting

against its opponents and

more than a year of bom-

bardment 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 talk-

ing to regional govern-

ments, including Turkey,

about its concerns over the

importing of energy infra-