LESS OIL, PRICE ABOVE

The world's unused spare oil production capacity would struggle to cover for another big outage, industry officials and analysts say, increasing the chance governments may tap strategic reserves should Iraq's southern exports be disrupted.

Unrest in Iraq comes as the almost total loss of Libyan supply, Western sanctions on Iran as well as conflict in Syria and northern Iraq are keeping almost 3 million barrels per day (bpd) - more than 3 percent of world demand - off the market.

More Saudi Arabian supply, and the U.S. shale oil boom, have helped plug gaps, but another crisis would deepen dependance on the Saudis,…