IS ‘oil exports’ more myth than reality

The ability of the Islamic State group (IS or Daesh) to finance its military operations in Iraq, Syria and its growing franchise in Libya using revenue from oil production in Iraq and Syria is in great doubt – putting into question the international focus on the jihadist group’s supposed hydrocarbons-driven business model. Far from controlling an informal but highly profitable export business – as it likes to claim – IS, and the area it controls, may be importing fuel from its neighbours