The big news in the Energy Patch this week is the Kurdish independence vote, which threatens to disrupt the global oil market and could lead to civil war in Iraq. We follow up with the usual dose of stories from around the world: surging global demand for diesel; the Aramco IPO; US loans billions to two nuclear plants; Australian coal plants running out of coal; Tesla sends storage batteries to Puerto Rico; Denmark wants more solar; California mulls ban on fossil-fuel vehicles; Canada’s expanding farmland; the utility death spiral; no more wood-burning in London; batteries at Burbo Bank; the Barrier Reef stages an unexpected recovery; evaporation engines replace nuclear power and how global warming could damage your car’s suspension.
Vox: Iraq’s Kurds just voted to secede. Here’s why that could cause a new civil war
The Kurds have just taken a large — and very dangerous — step by overwhelmingly approving a referendum on formally declaring independence from the Iraqi central government in Baghdad.
The mere act of holding the vote risks a new rupture between the Kurds and the Iraqi government — one with a real risk of actual fighting between the two sides. Kirkuk is the flashpoint largely because of its massive oil wealth. Nine billion barrels of oil reserves lie just outside the city — 6 percent of the world’s total and 40 percent of Iraq’s. Until recently, Baghdad produced and sold all of Kirkuk’s oil. But after ISIS sabotaged Baghdad’s pipeline and peshmerga forces streamed in, Baghdad lost control. Kurds now control three of the five oil fields. A deal reached in August 2016 ensured that both Kurdish and Iraqi governments get a share of the oil proceeds, but Baghdad wants its oil fields back. Yet Kurdistan needs oil revenue from Kirkuk to pay even a fraction of the costs of running a quasi-independent Kurdish state. Baghdad’s only way to regain control of Kirkuk is through negotiations or fighting.
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