September 28, 2014
Aaron Magazine
ISIS Has Us Over A Barrel
ISIS has become one of the wealthiest terrorist groups in history. According to the Huffington Post, they have been making as much as three million dollars a day with the majority of the funds coming from the illegal oil trade. ISIS has been gradually taking over oil assets in Syria the past three years and now has control of sixty percent of Syria's oil production. The group relies on the cooperation of locals. There are about 8 million people living in the territory ISIS controls that desperately need fuel and energy supplies, and they are producing about 70,000 barrels a day between Syria and Iraq. That means that ISIS's first customer basis is the people. The returns of this trade have contributed to the expansion of this terrorist group from about 10,000 fighters to 31,000. It is now believed that the oil revenues have contributed significantly to the expansion of the recruitment.
English: 100 Syrian pound, obverse.
حقل نفط رميلان
Map of Syrian oil fields, pipelines and refineries...So how does this relate to what we are talking about in class right now? This current event deals exactly with supply and demand and how it has caused inflation for prices of oil.
Right now, ISIS has a significant supply of oil after taking control of territories in the Islamic State. This has caused a shortage in supply of oil on the free market which has caused inflation on prices of oil. It has also led to an increase in demand for oil because people desperately need fuel and energy supplies. Instead of the oil being sold on the free market, ISIS is selling it on the black market extremely cheap for about $20-$60 a barrel. This has led to the branching out of the illegal oil trade to other countries because of the ridiculously...