TEMPO.CO, Baghdad - The Iraqi government warns crude oil buyers that the funds they use to buy illegal oil in their region will be used to fund the Islamic State (IS) group operations. Every Iraqi oil sales without the authorization of SOMO – the only legitimate agency in Iraq who has the authority to sell crude oil – will resulted in a sanction towards the buyers under the consideration that they have contributed to terrorism.
On Wednesday, August 20, 2014, Iraqi Ministry of Oil said that IS imports their oil from oil fields located in the regions that the group has managed to control. According to the Saudi media Asharq Al-Awsat, IS sells their oil through Kurdish traders in the border of Iraq, Iran and Syria. The oil then delivered to Pakistan where it will be sold at half of the original price.
Analysts predicted that IS can gain profit up to US$ 1 million per day by selling crude oil from the oil fields they controlled. The group have smuggled oil into Turkey and Iran, where it is sold for only US$ 25 per barrel.
The Kurdish role in the IS oil exports has blurred the relationship between Baghdad and the Kurdish autonomous government in Erbil. Tensions rise on May when Erbil started to export oil through the Ceyhan Harbor in Turkey. The government of Iraq calls the export as 'smuggling' and have stopped paying the salaries of government officials in the area. Erbil however, insisted that they sell their oil independently.
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