ISIS Oil Industry

ISIS and the Oil Industry The oil industry became a key source of revenue for ISIS following the 2003 onset of the Iraqi insurgency. In 2007, AQI was making roughly 100-200 million dollars per year from oil smuggling, with much of the smuggled product stolen from the Bayji refinery. In 2008, AQI made 50-100 thousand dollars or 18.25-36.5 million per annum through its Bayji rackets. AQI operatives were also known to drill holes in oil pipelines, syphon the oil into trucks, and sell it to various black market interests. Another AQI oil scheme was the placing of checkpoints in the path of fuel trucks identified by informants. These trucks were then hijacked, driven into Iran, given Iranian license plates, and brought back into Iraq.
While AQI was said to make a maximum of 100-200 million dollars per year from the oil industry, ISIS reportedly makes upwards of 2 million dollars per day or 730 million dollars per annum through the black market oil trade. ISIS currently controls around 11 oil fields in Iraq and Syria, including most of Syria’s oil fields and several smaller fields in Iraq’s Salaheddin, Diyala, and Ninewa provinces. ISIS uses its control over Syria’s oilfields and pipelines to sell much needed oil to the Assad regime and collect extortion revenue from it in exchange for allowing oil to continue flowing. Naturally, ISIS’s control over oil assets necessary to the Assad regime’s survival could limit the actions the Syrian government would be willing to take against ISIS. The Syrian regime currently finds itself in an economically tenuous situation and faces numerous other enemies like the Free Syrian Army, Harakat Ahrar as Sham, and Jahbat an Nusra. These entities are often at odds with ISIS and would probably compete with it for power in the event the Assad regime collapses. By allowing oil to continue flowing to the Assad regime, ISIS profits financially while encouraging the Syrian government and its rivals in the Syrian opposition to grind each other down so that ISIS will face a weakened opponent or opponents in any future battle for
In June and July of 2014, ISIS was selling oil from seized Iraqi facilities like the Ajeel oil field near Tikrit to drivers for 25 dollars per barrel. The drivers would then sell the oil at higher price to middlemen who find ways to launder the oil and sell it at a profit themselves. ISIS has also smuggled oil from its own facilities like the Najma oil field near Mosul through Syria into Turkey where it is sold for around 25 dollars per barrel to Turkish middlemen. Additionally, ISIS sold oil to Iraqi and Kurdish middlemen that could smuggle oil into Turkey and Iran while some Turkish middlemen are said to maintain direct connections to Turkish oil refineries, connections which could also exist with regards to Iraqi and Kurdish middlemen and refineries in southern Iraq and Kurdistan. The price ISIS sells its oil for seems connected to global prices, as the global price of oil per barrel was around 100 dollars when ISIS was selling barrels of oil for 25-60 dollars. Prices would naturally be adjusted to align with market prices in order to ensure all parties involved end up making a profit that justifies the risk involved in engaging in illegal activity. That said, ISIS has found it can sell its oil at a higher price if it cuts out the middleman. ISIS is known to sell crude oil directly to small-scale,