For much of the past month, the Kurdistan referendum on independence and its possible implications for the region have dominated news headlines from the Middle East. The fate of Kurdistan-controlled oil production and exports in the face of Turkish threats to cut off the main export route for Kurdish oil, and Iraq’s call to the neighbors and the world to deal only with the federal government—especially in oil sales and trade—pushed oil prices to a several-months-high at the end of September. The oil-rich area around Kirkuk—with the city currently under the administration of Kurdish forces—is the site where both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Iraq’s state-held North Oil Company control oil wells. The dispute over Kirkuk and its oil fields could spark a civil war If the central government and Kurdistan leave the issue with the Kurdish push for independence unresolved, Iraqi Vice President Ayad Allawi said in […]