ISIS
is on the lookout for a skilled professional to manage its failing oil
refineries and has been using black-market agents to advertise the
£140,000-a-year post.
The
terror group is said to have captured at least 11 oil fields in Iraq
and Syria during its offensive campaign and was thought to be making
around £2million-a-day from sales in June.
But
a string of fatal accidents and a lack of ideological commitment from
trained engineers has seen its profits slump by more than two thirds.
Meet your new bosses: ISIS is looking to recruit a skilled manager to run its faltering illegal oil business
Up
to now jihadists have run their newly-acquired business through
intimidation - threatening to kill employees' families if they fail to
comply.
But their murderous approach to those not loyal to the ISIS cause has seen them hemorrhage trained engineers, The Times reports.
The refineries manager position is the most senior of several vacancies that the terror group is hoping to fill.
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Oil
workers in Iraq say black market agents have been spreading the word
through jihadist networks - casting their net as far afield as north
Africa.
Robin
Mills, at Manaar Energy, a consultancy firm in Dubai, has confirmed the
reports but believes ISIS will struggle to attract the best staff with
the pay packet they are offering.
He
said: 'The money is good, but it's not that good. A western oil exec
posted to Iraq right now, let alone working for ISIS, would expect to
earn a lot more than that.'
Biggest source of
wealth: A pro-militant social media account put out this picture of
smoke rising after an attack by ISIS on the country's largest oil
refinery in Baiji in June
And
officials at Iraq's North Oil Company, which has lost one field to
ISIS, said: 'With each round of fighting, more staff drift away.
Initially they coerced staff, threatening to kill their families. Now
they're offering the carrot instead.'
It is believed the militant group has also struggled to attract large buyers for its product.
Matthew M. Reed, a Washington-based consultant who analyzes oil and politics in the Middle East, told CBC News last month: 'No big traders, no serious companies are going to fool around with that oil.
'That oil is essentially radioactive at this point. No one wants to touch it.'
What that means is that the vast majority of the group's oil sales is going to so-called 'middlemen'.
These
are people who own their own tanker trucks and who have connections to
established smuggling networks in northern Syria and southern Turkey, or
to local refineries in places like Syria, Iraq, Kurdistan and Turkey.
Under threat: Iraqi security forces
said they advanced to within one mile of the city of Baiji this week in a
new offensive to retake the country's biggest oil refinery
Mr
Reed adds: 'They're relying on very small transactions and a lot of
them in order to move the oil because they're selling it by tanker truck
more often than not.
'And a tanker truck can't hold that much oil.'
The
terrorist organisation has gone about plundering oil and gas facilities
since its emergence in 2012 and last month was said to have appointed
an 'oil minister' to run the illegal industry after its operatives stole
200 lorries in Iraq.
It
has captured oil fields at Sasan, Ajeel and Sadid in Iraq as well as
Omar in Syria while large refineries have also been captured at
Fallujah, Aksas and Tikrit.
Iraq's
largest oil refinery in Baiji, located around 130 miles north of
Baghdad, has also been under siege since June - and is thought to be
ISIS' biggest source of wealth
Mission: The terrorist organisation has gone about plundering oil and gas facilities since its emergence in 2012
Using smuggling networks to transport their product across borders - jihadists can make around £15 a barrel
After
many existing engineers fled ISIS has been forced to operate with
'skeleton staff' at some of their facilities including Omar, which has
changed hands three times since the conflict started.
It
is understood that ISIS was taking about 80,000 barrels a day from oil
fields it was controlling in Iraq and Syria - but that has halved in
recent months.
Iraqi
security forces said this week they were now within a 1.2 miles of the
city of Baiji in a new offensive to retake the refinery
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