Iraq: Iraq’s Insurgency and the Threat to Oil

Jun 13, 2014 | Gulf News
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Washington: Oil markets are finally rattling after militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) took over a series of key Iraqi cities this week, including the country’s second largest, and reportedly surrounded Iraq’s biggest oil refinery.

The insurgent drive poses little immediate threat to oil production or exports from Opec’s second-largest producer, which explains why oil prices haven’t exploded. But Iraq’s disarray, coupled with a series of stubborn crude-supply outages in Libya, Sudan, Nigeria and ongoing sanctions on Iranian exports, portends a summer of high oil prices with potentially dire effects on the global economy.