Middle East Oil Outlook Unsettled Amid Security Vacuum | Chatham House
▻http://www.chathamhouse.org//node/16806
It will be a tough year for Middle East oil exporters. Depressed oil prices, emboldened jihadi groups and the uncertain outcome of political successions top the list for geopolitical upsets in the Middle East in 2015.
http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/files/chathamhouse/field/field_image_listing/20150204KirkukOil.jpg Several states are weakened by insurgencies and civil wars, while their neighbours try to manage the spill over. In Libya, Syria and Iraq the central states do not exercise sovereign control over the territory, including some of its oil facilities and export infrastructure.
Libya’s oil exports struggled in 2014 through seven months of civil war but proved surprisingly resilient. Now, as Islamist, pro-government and anti-government forces battle to control the eastern oil facilities, it is unlikely that Libya’s exports will continue to be spared.