MOSCOW, July 31 (RIA Novosti) – Three tankers with millions of barrels of Iraqi Kurdish crude are all managed by a Greek shipping company, Marine Management Services, which has refused to name its charterer, according to Reuters.
The tankers have been anchored in international waters for weeks following a legal dispute with the government in Baghdad, which has objected to oil shipments from Iraqi Kurdistan.
The United Emblem, which is carrying more than 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude, is stationed in the South China Sea off the eastern coast of the Malaysian peninsula. On Thursday, it reportedly offloaded a part of its cargo into another ship that made off with the crude in an unknown direction.
Kostas Georgopoulos, the chartering manager at Marine Management Services, said he didn’t know where the ship carrying what is suspected to be a half of the United Emblem's oil cargo was headed, neither the end buyer, but added charterers were in control of the tanker.
The second tanker carrying Kurdish oil, the United Leadership, is stationed off Morocco, while the third one, the United Kalavrvta, has been stranded in international waters off the US coast since the weekend. On Wednesday, a US court said it was unable to seize the cargo due to the lack of jurisdiction.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Monday that "the cargo remains on board the ship at this time."
“We believe that Iraq’s energy resources belong to the Iraqi people and certainly have long stated that it needs to go through the central government. And as you know, there’s an ongoing legal dispute in this case, which is - which obviously is something that we’re aware of and we’re closely following," Psaki said, adding that US policy has not changed.
Authorities of Iraqi Kurdistan are in conflict with Baghdad over its oil exports. In May, a cargo of Kurdish crude was delivered in Houston to an unidentified buyer, and four other cargoes have been delivered so far this year to Israel.
The Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq has strengthened its independence bid in the past few months amid the rise of a Sunni insurgency across the country. Kurds have been especially successful in quenching the uprising and cementing control over their land and oilfields, in particular around the resource-rich city of Kirkuk.
