TY - JOUR
T1 - Terrorism, geopolitics, and oil security
T2 - Using remote sensing to estimate oil production of the Islamic State
AU - Do, Quy Toan
AU - Shapiro, Jacob N.
AU - Elvidge, Christopher D.
AU - Abdel-Jelil, Mohamed
AU - Ahn, Daniel P.
AU - Baugh, Kimberly
AU - Hansen-Lewis, Jamie
AU - Zhizhin, Mikhail
AU - Bazilian, Morgan D.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Jishnu Das, Shanta Devarajan, Fabrice Mosneron Dupin, Tarek Ghani, Guy Grossman, Martyn Howells, and Roy van der Weide for helpful comments. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or official positions or policy of the U.S. Department of State, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Government, or the World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The institutions do not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of the institutions above concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. This paper is based on a World Bank Policy Working Paper [63], and funded by Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) and the Development Research Group of the World Bank.
Funding Information:
The authors are grateful to Jishnu Das, Shanta Devarajan, Fabrice Mosneron Dupin, Tarek Ghani, Guy Grossman, Martyn Howells, and Roy van der Weide for helpful comments. The views and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views or official positions or policy of the U.S. Department of State, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Government, or the World Bank, its Board of Executive Directors, or the governments they represent. The institutions do not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this work do not imply any judgment on the part of the institutions above concerning the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. This paper is based on a World Bank Policy Working Paper [ 63 ], and funded by Empirical Studies of Conflict Project (ESOC) and the Development Research Group of the World Bank .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018
PY - 2018/10
Y1 - 2018/10
N2 - As the world's most traded commodity, oil production is typically well monitored and analyzed. It also has established links to geopolitics, international relations, and security. Despite this attention, the illicit production, refining, and trade of oil and derivative products occur all over the world and provide significant revenues outside of the oversight and regulation of governments. A prominent manifestation of this phenomenon is how terrorist and insurgent organizations—including the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL/ISIS or Daesh—use oil as a revenue source. Understanding the spatial and temporal variation in production can help determine the scale of operations, technical capacity, and revenue streams. This information, in turn, can inform both security and reconstruction strategies. To this end, we use satellite multi-spectral imaging and ground-truth pre-war output data to effectively construct a real-time census of oil production in areas controlled by the ISIL terrorist group. More broadly, remotely measuring the activity of extractive industries in conflict-affected areas without reliable administrative data can support a broad range of public policy and decisions and military operations.
AB - As the world's most traded commodity, oil production is typically well monitored and analyzed. It also has established links to geopolitics, international relations, and security. Despite this attention, the illicit production, refining, and trade of oil and derivative products occur all over the world and provide significant revenues outside of the oversight and regulation of governments. A prominent manifestation of this phenomenon is how terrorist and insurgent organizations—including the Islamic State group, also known as ISIL/ISIS or Daesh—use oil as a revenue source. Understanding the spatial and temporal variation in production can help determine the scale of operations, technical capacity, and revenue streams. This information, in turn, can inform both security and reconstruction strategies. To this end, we use satellite multi-spectral imaging and ground-truth pre-war output data to effectively construct a real-time census of oil production in areas controlled by the ISIL terrorist group. More broadly, remotely measuring the activity of extractive industries in conflict-affected areas without reliable administrative data can support a broad range of public policy and decisions and military operations.
KW - Energy security
KW - Illicit oil production
KW - Oil and conflict
KW - Remote sensing
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U2 - 10.1016/j.erss.2018.03.013
DO - 10.1016/j.erss.2018.03.013
M3 - Article
C2 - 30467534
AN - SCOPUS:85044718470
SN - 2214-6296
VL - 44
SP - 411
EP - 418
JO - Energy Research and Social Science
JF - Energy Research and Social Science
ER -