Official: ISIS looking to take over oil assets in Libya, other regions

An oil field near Mosul, Iraq.
(Image credit: Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

A senior U.S. official says the Islamic State wants to expand its oil business beyond Syria, and is looking at assets in Libya and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.

In Syria, ISIS has control of about 80 percent of the oil and gas fields, Reuters reports. The United States is working to gather information on pipelines, trucking routes, infrastructure, and oil fields that could be vulnerable to an attack by ISIS, said the official, who requested anonymity. "They are looking at the oil assets in Libya and elsewhere. We'll be prepared."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.