Turmoil in Iraq hits oil industry

WASHINGTON – Oil markets are watching in alarm as Sunni militants sweep through northern Iraq, creating havoc and endangering the country’s revival into a leading oil producer and major contributor to the stability of global energy prices.

The chaos already has sent world oil prices rising, as government forces and militants battle over the country’s largest refinery. Iraq’s big oil fields are far from the fighting in the Shiite south, but there are fears that the fractured nation could struggle to help meet future world demand.

“Iraq has always mattered to the oil market, not only because of its current production and exports – it is the second-largest OPEC crude exporter today – but also because of its huge reserves and untapped potential,” said Maria van der Hoeven, executive director of the International Energy Agency.

The IEA this week cut its forecast for Iraqi oil production growth, citing the country’s “prevailing security, institutional and investment risks.”

The militant offensive is taking a toll on the country’s oil infrastructure, halting repairs on the export pipeline from Kirkuk to the port of Ceyhan in Turkey, which was shut down by sabotage in March. There also has been heavy fighting between Iraqi security forces and militants over the oil refinery in Baiji, Iraq’s largest. The violence so far has not approached the southern oilfields, which account for at least 75 percent of Iraq’s production of 3.4 million barrels a day. Most of that oil goes from the port of Basra to tankers in the Persian Gulf for export, with China and India the biggest customers.

The U.S. imports only about 300,000 barrels a day from Iraq, but disruption in Iraqi production would further spike global oil prices and raise gasoline costs in America.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent, said speculators are using the Iraq crisis as an excuse to artificially drive up oil and gasoline prices.

“I am getting tired of big oil companies telling us that gasoline prices are going up because of the turmoil in Iraq,” Sanders said this week. “The truth is that big oil will never miss an opportunity to increase the price of gas. The fact is that high gasoline prices have less to do with supply and demand and more to do with Wall Street speculators driving prices up in the energy futures market.”

White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration is watching closely “and at this point, we have not seen major disruptions in oil supplies in Iraq.”