Iraq’s state-run North Oil Company (NOC) has fallen two months behind in paying hundreds of local residents contracted to guard oil wells in the Kirkuk area, potentially compounding the threats posed by an intensifying insurgency. Such payments have historically provided an incentive for locals to cooperate with state security forces and resist insurgents who might otherwise, through bribery or coercion, turn them into collaborators. The payment delays are one symptom of Iraq’s financial crisis, which has already caused major disruptions in other aspects of the country’s oil sector. T