Leaders are openly discussing the dissolution of a strategic agreement for united governance that has underpinned Kurdistan's stability and oil sector independence.

An oil smuggling ring was stealing thousands of barrels per day from a pipeline in Basra. The true contours of the conspiracy remain a mystery.

As political crisis and escalating violence threaten the stability of the state, followers of Sadr have also started protests at some oil fields.

In the increasingly chaotic struggle to form a new government, Iraq's oil sector has been both a political battleground and a victim of dysfunctional governance.