Iraq’s oil ministry has issued a stark warning to the international oil companies running its energy sector that it will slash spending in 2016 as the country feels the full effect of low crude prices and the fight against Islamic State . A Sept. 6 letter from an oil ministry official is fresh evidence that Iraq is struggling to maintain a swift expansion of its energy sector that has made it the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’s second-largest producer with 4 million a barrels a day or more this summer. “Because of the drop in our oil-sales revenues, the Iraqi government has sharply reduced the funds available to the Ministry of Oil,” the official, Abdul Mahdy al-Ameedi, wrote. “This will…reduce the funds available for the reimbursement of petroleum costs to our contractors.” Mr. Ameedi also wrote that the oil ministry didn’t expect lower funding to “reduce production from […]