Iraq’s crude exports had helped to keep global petrol prices from rising, but the Isis advance has driven prices past $114 a barrel
As fighting raged around Iraq’s biggest oil refinery on Wednesday, hundreds of cars queued for hours at petrol stations in Irbil and Kirkuk. Iraqi Kurdistan has so far escaped violence, but supplies of petrol are running low. The shortage is rumoured to have been caused by locally produced fuel being smuggled into Mosul and other affected areas. On Wednesday, prices more than doubled in the course of the day.
The growing threat of civil war is unnerving residents in Kirkuk and Baghdad but it should also worry consumers around the world. Iraq is one of the world’s key oil producers, and until recently its growing crude exports had helped to keep global petrol prices from rising too high, .