India News Online reports that Iraqi oil stocks in Basra—from which the country is partly maintaining its current export rate of 800,000 to 1 million barrels per day—is dwindling and close to exhaustion.

If true, and if, as the report says, no new oil is being produced out of Basra because of the insurgency, then get ready for another hefty price uptick in oil when the tanks are sucked dry.

There is no production of oil now in Basra and what is being exported is from previously produced and stored oil, an Iraqi South Oil Company source was quoted by the Kuwait News Agency as saying.

The source in Basra added this stock is on its way to exhaustion.

South Oil Company spokesman Samir Jasem refused to specify the volume of exported oil, saying, “A lot of what is being reported is false.”

As for the extent of damage suffered by the company in recent attacks, Jasem said the damage is “great”, expressing sorrow that political conflicts have such a devastating effect on the oil sector, which provides services to the people.