Iraq/Syria/Libya: Oil Could Lead to the Downfall of ISIS

Mar 9, 2015 | Rob Nikolewski, Watchdog
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One of the key factors to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria may be as simple as disrupting oil production at facilities in northern Iraq under its control.

“Focus should be put on the identification of the origin, middlemen, buyers, carriers, traders and routes through which oil produced in (ISIS)-held territory is trafficked,” wrote the authors of a report put together by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, an organization established to fight terrorist financing and money laundering.

Last June, ISIS seized oil fields near Mosul and Tikrit in the northern part of the war-torn country. It’s estimated that as much as 50,000 barrels a day is produced in ISIS-held territory.

But there appears to be some good news on the horizon. ISIS is having trouble turning the oil facilities into the cash bonanza for which it hoped.