If IS is the great world terror it is protease as, any amount is significant.

Here's how "insignificant" Turkish trafficking in ISIS oil is:

http://www.globalresearch.ca/isis-oil-exports-worth-500-million-a-year-conducted-through-turkey/5485920

And no one will do anything about it because Erdogan and his family (who are widely believed to be skimming off the top) would be upset if they did. Aww.

All serious news sources seem to classify the Russian allegations as complete BS.

But I do know that $500 million+ in oil smuggled out of Syria annually couldn't very plausibly have happened at all without a Turkish route.

And that, if so, such a massive smuggling route could not have been sustained for the past 15 months or so without Ankara's connivance - or at the very least its acquiescence (probably for the money).

We should always keep in mind that a NATO membership alone does not an ally make.

It also gets traded inside Syria, to supply all the people there (because no-one is importing petroleum products to the country at the moment), and a lot goes into Iraq, a border which ISIS of course controls in places.

A Financial Times article from mid-October, before this became a matter of claim and counter-claim between Russia and Turkey:

http://ig.ft.com/sites/2015/isis-oil/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/b8234932-719b-11e5-ad6d-f4ed76f0900a.html

Your statement on the face of it appears to contradict the JCS statement in February

I Googled Turkey + oil and went to the News tab, and basically the first results were:

Wall Street Journal: Russian Claims Against Turkey on Islamic State Oil Unfounded, Officials and Experts Say
http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-claims-against-turkey-on-islamic-state-oil-unfounded-officials-and-experts-say-1449255250

Business Insider Australia: Russia presented 'evidence' today of Turkey's oil ties to ISIS -- but it has a crucial flaw
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/russia-turkey-isis-oil-ties-2015-12?r=US&IR=T

Jerusalem Post: US official: Oil smuggled into Turkey not enough to be profitable
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/US-official-Oil-smuggled-into-Turkey-not-enough-to-be-profitable-436361

Indian Express: Turkey’s ‘oil trade’ with Daesh: examining Russia’s allegations
http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/turkeys-oil-trade-with-daesh-examining-russias-allegations/

Daily Sabah: Germany one by one debunks Russian claims that Turkey trades Daesh oil
http://www.dailysabah.com/diplomacy/2015/12/04/germany-one-by-one-debunks-russian-claims-that-turkey-trades-daesh-oil

I discounted a result from RT, obviously, but all the other articles are pretty clear that the Russian allegations are baseless.

From what I can gather, that estimate is based in an assumption that each tanker only carries 50 drums of oil Thus it is concluded it is not profitable transport by road. That baseline assumption is wildly inaccurate by a factor of at least 10.

Seymore Hersh uncovered that Turkey has been extraordinarily "tolerant" of ISIS related trafficing across it's borders. Russia just managed to actually push the information out into the mainstream (and past the official narration).

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n08/seymour-m-hersh/the-red-line-and-the-rat-line

since the days of Saddam.

The trucks stretched 70 miles at the border and the US said they didn't even exist.

Narrative based reporting (IE propaganda) is getting so prominent that I will not be surprised if people deny facts that occur right in the streets they live on.

people actually pay for that crap to be provided.
they sure know how to (not) look out for their own interests.
I remember when a good threat of a boycott would change things.
that word and freedom have lost their spots in our vocabulary and dialog.

It is enough to buy a bunch of new Toyota trucks to mount weapons on and parade around in.

so Putin is correct

The US knew about it


"The amount of oil being smuggled is extremely low and has decreased over time and is of no significance from a volume perspective -- both volume of oil and volume of revenue," said Amos Hochstein, US special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs.

I read somewhere that Iran had satellite pictures plus more proof of tanker convoys ....they're suppose to be showing the evidence to the world too.

unimpeded. The tire tracks lead to Turkey, which unfortunately is a NATO country. Turkey will take all the oil it can get and this is going to get messy now that they decided to make an incursion into Iraq. They sat on the side lines and even shot across the border at those trying to flee in ISIS path before.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Russia has ramped up accusations that Ankara is involved in illegal trade

ISTANBUL—Moscow has resurrected accusations by rivals of Turkey’s most powerful leaders that Ankara has covertly fueled the rise of Islamic State, deepening the diplomatic rift over last week’s shootdown of a Russian bomber.

Led by President Vladimir Putin, Russian leaders contend that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family personally benefit from Islamic State oil smugglers who ferry their goods across the Turkey-Syria border.

But there is no evidence that Mr. Erdogan and his family are involved in the illegal oil trade, according to Turkish officials, oil industry analysts and independent experts. U.S. officials and Mr. Erdogan dismissed the claims as ridiculous.

While low-level smuggling from its strongholds remains one of Islamic State’s most important sources of funding, the Turkish government has clamped down on key supply routes.

Read More: http://www.wsj.com/articles/russian-claims-against-turkey-on-islamic-state-oil-unfounded-officials-and-experts-say-1449255250

sales. The majority, the US Joint Chiefs spokesman stated, was from donations coming from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states.

That can be interpreted a dozen different ways. It is what people do, when they know the plain facts of the matter will be damning.

is too much oil and should be stopped. Don't trust Turkey any more then I trust republicans.

I mean the Russian gov has never lied and definitely not recently LOLOL

so pretty, you will forget everything. Now repeat after me, "what oil? I don't see any oil!"

just another official trying to sell us bullshit by calling it chocolate.

Before it gets us into a war to protect a useless ally.

I think the US is trying to protect Turkey like it's protecting Saudi Arabia, aka sleeping with the enemy.

Destroyed 1000 oil tankers over the last fews months then NO it is not insignificant.

that's about 30,000 cubic meters or 180,000 barrels. Not all that much and in monetary terms certainly less than the cost of the missions. The US has dropped about 20,000 bombs and missiles. Again, IS has the advantage. Our whole defense system seems predicated on producing profits at US taxpayer expense rather than military results.

And should be difficult to replace.

Putin lovers are losing it big time.

Oh dear, you mean Putin's dictatorship was lying once again? Not possible, is it? LOL

Not all of the sales are through smugglers in Turkey, but it was reported a couple months ago that most was.

http://www.businessinsider.com/isis-making-50-million-a-month-from-oil-sales-2015-10

IS sells the crude to smugglers for discounted prices, sometimes $35 per barrel but as low as $10 a barrel in some cases, compared to just under $50 a barrel on international markets, four Iraqi intelligence officials told the AP in separate interviews. The smugglers in turn sell to middlemen in Turkey, they said. The oil used to be smuggled in fleets of giant tankers but, fearing airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, smaller tankers are being used now.

The Islamic State group is believed to be extracting about 30,000 barrels per day from Syria, smuggled to middlemen in neighboring Turkey. In Iraq, they produce around 10,000-20,000 barrels per day, mostly from two oilfields outside Mosul, Ibrahim Bahr al-Oloum, a member of Iraq's parliamentary energy committee and a former oil minister, told the AP. But he said much of the Iraqi production is not sold and instead sent to Syria to makeshift refineries the group has set up to produce fuel products.

In total, the group is believed to make $40-$50 million a month from sales, the Iraqi officials said. A report by the Islamic State's Diwan al-Rakaaez — its version of a Finance Ministry — seen by the AP in Baghdad shows that revenues from oil sales from Syria alone last April totaled $46.7 million. The IS "finance ministry" report put at 253 the number of oil wells under IS control in Syria, saying 161 of them were operational. Running the wells were 275 engineers and 1,107 workers, it said.