"Islamic State Loses Control Of Iraqi Oil Fields"

By Lincoln Brown

Sep 28, 2016, 5:47 PM CDT

Oil Price

The Islamic State will have to turn to other means to finance terror activities now that it no longer controls oil wells in Iraq.

Iraq’s oil ministry announced that IS was driven out of Shirqat — an area near Kirkuk — by U.S. backed Iraqi forces last Thursday. In August, IS lost the Qayyara oilfield south of Mosul in a push by the government retake the city. While the Iraqi government has not captured the Najma oilfield, it is of no use to the Islamic State, because the group cannot access the fields due to government airstrikes.

According to Asim Jihad, “Najma has yet to be liberated because some sites are in the conflict zone. The reality is that it is extremely difficult to extract and smuggle oil while our forces are advancing towards Mosul...," Provincial security official Muthana Jbara noted. 

Without the income provided by the oilfields, the Islamic State will have to finance it activities through other means, such as increasing fines and taxes in the areas which it still controls.

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