Defense Department outlines effort to cut off ISIL from energy reserves

The U.S. government and its allies are looking to attack ISIL on multiple fronts.

Recently, the U.N. Security Council gathered global financial ministers to discuss ways to cut off ISIL from its financial backers, and the U.S. Department of Defense is looking to keep the terrorist group from accessing its energy sources.

An unnamed senior U.S. official briefed the press recently about U.S. plans to cut off ISIL from its energy reserves.

“So if you look at some from the early days of the conflict to where we are today, there was a clear prioritization by ISIL and other groups, as well as the regime, to control specific energy assets," the official (whose name was redacted from the transcript) said. “That means whether it's natural resources, oil and gas fields, the wells, but also some of the other installations, facilities, infrastructure, from pipelines to grid lines to GOSPs (gas-oil separation plants), to the oil separating, to gas transmission lines, etc.”

The U.S. Is looking to control ISIL's energy assets by reducing its ability to use energy as a resource, whether for profits or to control territory.

“The idea has been from the beginning was for us to take a look at how do you take the value of the barrel because you can't simply take away their ability to profit from energy unless they lose the territory in which that facility installation or natural resource is in,” the official said.