Oil production from the Kurdistan region of Iraq increased by more than 50% last month, despite violence in the country’s north and as logistical problems at the port of Basra cut exports from the south. The shifting nature of Iraq’s oil sector reflects political developments in the country. In a bid to gain greater independence, the Kurdistan Regional Government has taken advantage of its relative stability to increase oil exports in the past two months, infuriating Baghdad which claims sovereignty over the country’s natural resources. Meanwhile, the federal government is struggling to contend with a Sunni extremist insurgency in the north and west, led by the group that calls itself Islamic State, that has shut the country’s largest refinery and cut output from the giant Kirkuk field to a trickle. Production from Iraqi Kurdistan rose to 360,000 barrels a day in June, an increase of 130,000 […]