US strikes to spare Iraq, Syria oil capacity

OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2015. The US is working to avoid permanent damage to Iraqi and Syrian oil production capacity controlled by militant group Isis, US defense chiefs said.

The US is preparing to extend its anti-Isis operations to Iraq after carrying out strikes in Syria in November that destroyed 399 fuel trucks and hit other delivery infrastructure.

The strikes in Syria disrupted an estimated 43pc of the revenue Isis derives from trading oil, US defense secretary Ashton Carter told a US House of Representatives panel yesterday.

But "we do not wish to destroy the entire oil revenue infrastructure of Syria or Iraq because someday those countries are going to need to be restored to decent governance," Carter told members of the House Armed Services Committee.

Oil consultancy IHS last year said Isis controlled as much as 350,000 b/d of pre-war capacity in Iraq and Syria but was able to produce only about 50,000-60,000 b/d.

PetroChina's al-Furat oil field in Syria was seized by Isis last year. The 300,000 b/d Baiji refinery in Iraq shut down last year after an Isis advance but Iraqi forces since then have recaptured most of the area.

US Treasury Department last year estimated sales of crude output under Isis control at \\$1mn/d. The US defense department said Isis derives half its revenue from oil sales, meaning recent air strikes targeting the oil infrastructure affected about 20pc of the group's daily revenue.

The US-led forces last year targeted Isis modular oil refineries. Carter said those strikes proved ineffective, resulting in a shift of strategy to target individual oil wells, fuel trucks and other delivery infrastructure.

Lawmakers criticized Carter and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Joseph Dunford for not targeting the Isis-controlled oil infrastructure until recently. But the US defense chiefs said it took time to assess intelligence, identify potential targets and make sure civilians were not targets of strikes.

The US is dispatching a "specialized expeditionary targeting force" to work with Iraqi forces and Kurdish peshmerga militia against Isis, Dunford said.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff would not "feel inhibited" about recommending an increase in US presence in Iraq above the current 3,500, Dunford said. The Pentagon said it will consult the Iraqi government over operations of the additional forces, but Baghdad will not have a veto power over US operations.

Disrupting Isis' ability to sell oil has become a subject in the US domestic politics after leading Republican contender Donald Trump raised the issue in a 10 November debate. Russia on 14 November also called on the US to put an end to the Isis oil trade and carried out strikes of its own.

The Pentagon has acknowledged that Russian strikes have targeted Isis fuel trucks, last week putting the number of trucks destroyed by the Russian air force at less than 100.

The US has said the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a major customer of Isis-controlled oil output.

In turn, Russian President Vladimir Putin on 30 November claimed Isis sends most of its crude output to Turkey, contending that the 24 November downing of the Russian Su-24 bomber by Turkey reflected a desire to protect that oil trade.

"We flatly reject the notion of Turkey working with Isis," the Pentagon said today. The State Department called on Russia and Turkey to de-escalate tensions caused by the incident.

Turkish President Recep Erdogan told US President Barack Obama during a meeting in Paris on 1 December that Isis does not operate in the Turkoman-populated region of northern Syria, over which the Russian bomber was shot down.

Both Obama and Carter in recent weeks have discussed establishing a tighter control over the Turkish-Syria border with Erdogan.

"We need Turkey to do more within its own territory so it controls its border, which it has not done effectively since Isis first arose," Carter told US lawmakers yesterday.