US aims to wipe out Isis funding with air strikes on oil wells in Syria

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/25/analysis-syria-us-air-strikes-oil-wells

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The latest US air strikes in Syria targeted oil facilities controlled by Islamic State (Isis) in a deliberate attempt to wipe out a lucrative source of income for the rapidly expanding jihadist group.

US central command said 13 air strikes were launched against refineries in the east of the country. They included at least four oil installations and three oil fields around the town of Mayadeen. Also hit were targets near Al Hasakah, Abu Kamail and Deir el-Zour, on the Euphrates river.

The US said that these “small-scale refineries” provided fuel for Isis’s military operations as well as money to finance “continued attacks throughout Iraq and Syria”. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 14 Islamic state militants were killed in Wednesday’s attacks. Another five people who lived near one of the refineries in Hasakah province also died. The Observatory said that they were probably the wives and children of the militants.

Washington says the refineries currently produce between 300-500 barrels of refined petroleum a day, generating as much as $2m daily for Isis. The decision to destroy production in Syria – though not in Iraq, where the government in Baghdad has asked the US not to hit oil infrastructure – flows directly from President Barack Obama’s strategic objective to “destroy and degrade” Islamic State.

Some experts suggest that the US may have somewhat exaggerated the amount of oil involved. The Islamic fighters do not have access to Syria’s main refinery, in the west of the country. Instead, they rely on primitive small-scale production units. These are located east of Raqqa, Isis’s de facto capital in the north-east, as well as Deir el-Zor and areas south of Al Hasakah. The mini-refineries produce a rudimentary product, a kind of diesel, which is then sold to middlemen and trucked illegally across the border to Turkey. The volumes are small compared to the amount of oil exported by Syria before the 2011 war and the imposition of sweeping western sanctions.

Reports suggest the reality on the ground is frequently chaotic. Often groups control an oil field for a few weeks, before another battalion or rival tribal leader fights for the facility and takes over. Many oil fields in eastern Syria lie idle or pump meagre quantities. Those that do work often supply oil and gas both to the rebels and to the Syrian government. In turn Damascus refrains from bombing the area. Many engineers who serviced the oil wells have fled.

One tribal leader, Abu Zayed, interviewed by the Guardian last year said that he controlled a major gas plant close to his home near the city of Deir el-Zour. He said he made sure the gas tanks were empty each night, in case they were hit by a stray bullet from rival rebel groups warring nearby. “Most of the people who control the oilfields around here are making about 5m Syrian pounds [£32,000] a day,” he estimated.

Oil smuggling is an important part of Isis’s underground economy. It enables the organisation to pay salaries, keep services going and attract new recruits. Western observers say that as soon as Islamic State fighters conquer an area they prioritise the seizure of resources - grabbing old fields, but also taking over wheat silos, bakeries and food production facilities.

In Deir el-ZorIsis has continued to pay the technicians who previously worked for Syrian state oil firms. The technicians are generally from the area and have carried on working as before.

Some of the revenue generated by Isis is used to buy arms, and to fund its rapid expansion across huge swaths of Iraq and Syria. But Isis already has weapons from numerous other sources. In Iraq, Islamist fighters seized huge amounts of heavy weaponry over the summer from the retreating Iraqi army, when they seized Mosul, Iraq’s second city, and staged a lightning offensive. In Syria the group has seized weapons from government military bases. Syrian fighters from other outfits have joined Isis bringing their weapons with them.

In Iraq, Isis has seized control of the major pipeline which exports oil to Turkey. There has also been fierce fighting between Islamic state and Iraqi troops around the Baiji refinery, the country largest. The federal government in Baghdad, meanwhile, is in dispute with the Kurdish regional governmen in Irbil, which has been independently selling increasingly large quantities of oil on international markets.