MTECHTIPS Crude Oil : A casualty of the Iraq unrest

MTECHTIPS:-Crude Oil : A casualty of the Iraq unrest

The wave of violence that has erupted in Iraq following the government’s raid on a Sunni protest camp last month shows no signs of abating and fears are rising that the country is sliding into serious sectarian strife and possibly a return to civil war, Barclays has noted in a geopolitical update.More than 300 people have been killed in a series of bombings and shootings across the country over the past week. Monday was a particularly violent day, with at least 98 people killed in a string of attacks stretching from the northern city of Kirkuk to the southern oil hub of Basra. It was the highest one-day death toll since 2008.Oil has been a casualty of the unrest, with the 335,000 bpd Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline repeatedly bombed and the unstable security environment rendering repairs difficult. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki ordered a shake-up of his security services, in particular with a view to securing the capital. He announced that he would replace several army division commanders and dismiss the head of the Baghdad operations command. One worrying development is the apparently retaliatory nature of the attacks: Shiites were the main victims of Monday’s violence, but Sunni communities have also been actively targeted in recent weeks. This marks a significant change from the pattern of violence that has characterized the post-civil-war period since 2008.