Exactly, look at the simple answer, as you said. I'm not sure why people think this is such a controversial viewpoint. It's pretty obvious that ISIS was a big threat in 2015-2016 to the entire Middle East and that just so happens to correspond to when Saudi Arabia started acting irrationally in terms of its oil output. I'm not sure why this is so hard to believe that it's related.
The oil sands have been in business for the last 40 years. You're telling me now is when they feel the Canadian oil sands are a threat? In the last 2 years is when they decide to act irrationally and start dumping oil? Hogwash.
ISIS controlled large portions of Syria's oil output. But their operations in Iraq are much larger.
Also from the article:
ISIS used to earn some $30 million monthly from its oil operations, but revenues were down to around $15 million a month at the beginning of the year, according to Christopher Garver, spokesman for Operation Tidal Wave.
ISIS's claim to be a caliphate hinges on their ability to maintain a government-like status. They can continue doing this if they make $30M/month. But the US is hamstrung because they want to stop ISIS from taking advantage of the oil in Northern Iraq, but they can't bomb all the fields, otherwise it will cripple Iraq going forward.
So the best way to hurt ISIS and the Caliphate is by hitting their major source of income, which is oil, but cutting the price. If legit oil is $40/barrel instead of $100, and the caliphate can't afford to maintain their structure, then it implicitly collapse. Did you notice that after Hurricane Harvey, the US used that as an excuse to dump oil from the SPR? The problem isn't oil, it's the refineries in Houston that were taken offline. Releasing oil from the SPR made no sense because we're already in a glut, except to keep pressure on oil to stay low.
Again, I don't know why this is so hard for some people to believe. It's not a conspiracy theory, it makes a lot of sense, and I support it.
When the Saudi's tanked the price of oil, I assumed it was engineered by the USA to kick Russia's economy in the nuts in retaliation for their actions in Ukraine, Syria.
The oil sands have been in business for the last 40 years. You're telling me now is when they feel the Canadian oil sands are a threat? In the last 2 years is when they decide to act irrationally and start dumping oil? Hogwash.
ISIS controlled large portions of Syria's oil output. But their operations in Iraq are much larger.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/timdaiss/2016/08/26/why-islamic...
Also from the article: ISIS used to earn some $30 million monthly from its oil operations, but revenues were down to around $15 million a month at the beginning of the year, according to Christopher Garver, spokesman for Operation Tidal Wave.
ISIS's claim to be a caliphate hinges on their ability to maintain a government-like status. They can continue doing this if they make $30M/month. But the US is hamstrung because they want to stop ISIS from taking advantage of the oil in Northern Iraq, but they can't bomb all the fields, otherwise it will cripple Iraq going forward.
So the best way to hurt ISIS and the Caliphate is by hitting their major source of income, which is oil, but cutting the price. If legit oil is $40/barrel instead of $100, and the caliphate can't afford to maintain their structure, then it implicitly collapse. Did you notice that after Hurricane Harvey, the US used that as an excuse to dump oil from the SPR? The problem isn't oil, it's the refineries in Houston that were taken offline. Releasing oil from the SPR made no sense because we're already in a glut, except to keep pressure on oil to stay low.
Again, I don't know why this is so hard for some people to believe. It's not a conspiracy theory, it makes a lot of sense, and I support it.