Posted on 10/24/2014 5:31:05 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is earning about $1 million a day from black market oil sales, the United States has said, vowing to impose harsh sanctions on the purchasers of the oil, “including middlemen from Turkey.”
“With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIL is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted,” David Cohen, U.S. Treasury Department undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a speech at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington on Oct. 23. “It has amassed wealth at an unprecedented pace.”
ISIL is generating tens of millions of dollars a month through a combination of oil sales, ransom, extortion and other criminal activities, and support from wealthy donors, said Cohen, laying out the most comprehensive outline yet of the U.S. financial strategy against the group.
“It is difficult to get precise revenue estimates ... but we estimate that beginning in mid-June, ISIL has earned approximately $1 million a day from oil sales,” Cohen said. Other estimates have ranged as high as $3 million a day.
Middlemen in Turkey
The undersecretary said ISIL was selling oil at substantially discounted prices to a variety of middlemen, including some from Turkey, who then transport the oil to be resold. “It also appears that some of the oil emanating from territory where ISIL operates has been sold to Kurds in Iraq, and then resold into Turkey,” he said.
However, the U.S. official also praised Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) for being “committed to preventing ISIL-derived oil from crossing their borders.”
He also said U.S.-led airstrikes on ISIL refineries in Syria were also working to threaten the group’s supply networks, dashing a major blow its resources.
Cohen acknowledged, however, that ISIL moves oil in illicit networks outside the formal economy, making it harder to track.
“But at some point, that oil is acquired by someone who operates in the legitimate economy and who makes use of the financial system. He has a bank account. His business may be financed, his trucks may be insured, his facilities may be licensed,” he said.
“We not only can cut them off from the U.S. financial system and freeze their assets, but we can also make it very difficult for them to find a bank anywhere that will touch their money or process their transactions,” he said.
The Treasury also is going after individuals who donate money to ISIL and is urging officials in Qatar and Kuwait to do more to target terror financiers in their countries. A key, he said, is to restrict the militant group’s access to the international financial system.
The Caliphate is no different.
Pumping oil is better than directly taxing the peeps.
Bomb the pumping stations. Deprive ISIS of a million or more a day.
ISIL controls up to 350,000 barrels per day of pre-war oil production capacity in Iraq and Syria but is only able to produce 50,000 to 60,000 barrels a day, says IHS. That is because of warfare, shut-ins and ISIL’s limited technical capabilities.
ISIL sells its oil by transporting it in trucks through smuggling routes on the Turkish border, IHS reports. The oil is sold for an estimated $40 a barrel, compared to the current $85 per barrel for Dated Brent, the international oil benchmark.
http://www.industryweek.com/blog/isils-800-million-oil-business
For $45/barrel, there are a lot of people who would deal with the Devil himself.
We should bomb every bit of oil infrastructure in ISIS controlled areas, without exception.
I'm amazed this hasn't been done. 0bama is helping the enemy.
What could be done with a few A-10 gun runs....
This would be about 250 tanker trucks every day. Turkey could easily stop this, if they wanted to...
Just look for the sign Welcome to Turkey.
Sure there, State Dept pajama boy, that's some big talk.
You can't (or don't want to) control money trails for the Mafia, drug runners, human smuggling, gamblers, North Korean printing presses or a host of other illicit flows.
And you think that you will shut anything down in the M.E., when many on the White House and State Dept team are on the ISIS side?
Just no desire to do so from the top.
US threatens Turkish and Kurdish middlemen in ISIS oil bonanza
by James Reinl
23/10/2014
http://rudaw.net/english/world/231020143
[snip] “Last month, ISIL was selling oil at substantially discounted prices to a variety of middlemen, including some from Turkey... It also appears that some of the oil emanating from territory where ISIL operates has been sold to Kurds in Iraq, and then resold into Turkey... Airstrikes on ISIL oil refineries are threatening ISIL’s supply networks and depriving it of fuel to sell or use itself... Our partners in the region, including Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government, are committed to preventing ISIL-derived oil from crossing their borders.” Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Cohen threatened sanctions against anyone buying oil from ISIS. He said that ISIS funding from oil sales, ransoms, extortion and other criminal activities were difficult revenue streams to stop. [/snip]
Earlier in the week:
Iraq asks for air strikes on ISIL in Kirkuk
Kirkuk governor [Najmaldin Karim, a Kurd] asks US-led coalition to launch strikes against ISIL fighters who are advancing on the region.
Last updated: 21 Oct 2014 14:09
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/10/kirkuk-oil-fields-under-isil-threat-2014102111190151525.html
and why aren’t the Kurds getting the help they need?
Oil Gives Kurds a Path to Independence, and Conflict With Baghdad
by AZAM AHMED and CLIFFORD KRAUSS
OCT. 25, 2014
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/26/world/oil-gives-kurds-a-path-to-independence-and-conflict-with-baghdad.html?_r=0
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