Iraq’s oil in the north could face Turkey’s wrath

While Turkey's government decides whether to enter Iraq in response to ongoing attacks blamed on Kurdish separatists hiding in the northern Iraq mountains, Iraq's oil sector pumps, and waits. Oil skyrocketed to $88 at one point Tuesday, before declining a few dollars, as concerns over global oil supplies and a new Iraq war strike nerves.

The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Ceyhan, Turkey, has largely been offline because of Sunni insurgents' successful sabotage tactics. The country, then, relied on the south to shoulder the 1.6 million barrels per day of exports, which brought in nearly the entire federal budget last year.