When things go down in the Middle East, oil prices go up. Even axioms have their nuances, though. Amid what may be the unraveling of Iraq, oil prices characteristically have risen, with Brent crude breaking back above $112 a barrel. Yet Iraq’s real significance for oil may have less to do with what transpires this summer and more over the rest of this decade. The direct threat to the country’s oil exports actually isn’t acute yet. For now, the insurgency is focused in central Iraq, away from the main oil-producing and exporting areas in the south and the largely Kurdish-controlled north . The bigger issue is what the sudden advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham means for Iraq’s oil-production growth prospects. In its latest medium-term forecast, released Tuesday, the International Energy Agency cut its supply-growth outlook for Iraq. It now expects Iraq to be […]