[ Lack of water in this region is destabilizing and thus could affect oil production as desperate populations migrate, civil wars, and social unrest unfold.  Alice Friedemann   www.energyskeptic.com  author of “When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation”, 2015, Springer]

22 Feb 2013. Drying out the cradle of civilization. Science vol 339 p.889

New satellite data paint a picture of humans draining the region’s meager water resources at an alarming rate. By measuring subtle changes in the pull of gravity over parts of Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran from 2003 through 2009, NASA’s twin GRACE satellites have revealed a dramatic loss of about 90 cubic kilometers of ground water (reds are largest losses), as reported last week in Water Resources Research. Farmers and other water users struck by a 2007 drought apparently had to withdraw water from wells faster than rain could replenish it.