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 has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.