Deal with devil: Turkey-IS oil trade

CAIRO -2 August 2017: Since Turkish-Russian relations were strained, Turkey’s oil imports from Russia were suspended. However, Turkey was not affected by that oil suspension. Many questions were aroused over Turkey’s ability to overcome the Russian boycott. Turkish research centers investigated the reasons and revealed Turkey’s ties with the Islamic State (IS).

Turkey resorted to IS to import oil after its relations with Russia were strained.

A newly-leaked report on illegal oil sales by IS, which was ordered to be compiled by Norway, has revealed that most of the IS-smuggled oil has been destined for Turkey, where it is sold off at bargain low prices.

“Large amounts of oil have been smuggled across the border to Turkey from IS-controlled areas in Syria and Iraq,” Klassekampen newspaper cited the report as saying. “[The] oil is sent by tankers via smuggling routes across the border [and] is sold at greatly reduced prices, from $25 to $45 a barrel.”

The crude is reportedly sold on the black market at greatly reduced prices, while the Brent benchmark is currently trading at $35-$50 per barrel.

In the beginning of December 2015, the Russian Defense Ministry released evidence that it said shows most of the illegal oil trade by IS going to Turkey.

George Kiourktsoglou (Visiting Lecturer at the University of Greenwich, London) and Dr. Alec D. Coutroubis (Principal Lecturer at the University of Greenwich, London) provide the most extensive account of the IS oil industry and potential links to Turkey. IS began taking over oil fields in late spring 2014. Since then, IS has expanded its operations by creating a loosely integrated and thriving underground economy, consisting of approximately sixty percent of Syria’s oil assets and seven oil producing facilities in Iraq.

According to Iraqi intelligence officials, IS sells the crude to smugglers, who in turn sell to middlemen in Turkey. IS is believed to be extracting about 30,000 barrels of oil per day from Syria, smuggled to middlemen in neighboring Turkey. This amount is augmented by up 20,000 barrels per day, mostly from two oilfields outside Mosul. The IS “finance ministry” puts the number of oil wells under IS control in Syria at 253. Of these, 161 of them were operational, benefitting from production equipment originating in neighboring countries, including Turkey.

IS oil is transported to Turkey via multiple routes. Oil from the Raqqa region is transported via the northwest route. A satellite image from November 13, 2015 shows the motorway at Azzaz with 240 trucks waiting on the Turkish side of the border and 46 trucks on the Syrian side of border. Trucks travel to Dortyol and Iskenderun ports. Satellite images dated October 18, 2015 of Deir Ez-Zor show hundreds of tankers carrying oil to towards Qamishli. After entering Turkey, oil is sent to the “Tupras” refinery in Batman, about 100 kilometers away. Oil is also transported from Syria to Cizre, Turkey. A November 14, 2015 satellite image shows 1,104 trucks.

The oil-smuggling operation of Abu Sayyaf, an IS leader, has been drastically reduced, although tankers still make it to the Syria-Turkey border. An IS member said, “I know of a lot of cooperation... I don’t see how Turkey can attack the organization too hard. There are shared interests,” Huffington Post reported.

Ali Ediboglu, an opposition MP in Turkey, said, “$800 million worth of oil that IS obtained from regions it occupied this year (the Rumeilan oil fields in northern Syria and most recently Mosul) is being sold in Turkey. They have laid pipes from villages near the Turkish border at Hatay. Similar pipes exist also at the Turkish border regions of Kilis, Urfa and Gaziantep. They transfer the oil to Turkey and sell it at a discount for cash. They refine the oil in areas close to the Turkish border and then sell it via Turkey. This is worth $800 million,” according to Al Monitor in June 2014.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said, “The irony of the Russians raising this concern is that there’s plenty of evidence to indicate that the largest consumer of IS oil is actually Bashar Assad and his regime, a regime that only remains in place because it is being propped up by the Russians,” the Daily Star revealed in December 2015.