Posted on 11/15/2014 6:39:01 AM PST by thackney
Iraq wants an international dispute over a tanker of crude floating for more than three months off Galveston’s coast to remain in U.S. courts because Kurdistan refuses to resolve the matter on Iraqi soil, according to recent court filings.
“It appears to be Iraqi Kurdistan’s position that no court in the world may adjudicate this matter,” Baghdad’s attorneys argued in court filings Thursday. “While the issues should be decided in Iraq, they certainly may be decided here.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government two months ago asked U.S. District Judge Gray Miller to dismiss Iraq’s pleases to seize more than 1 million barrels of contested oil, arguing that the case over who owns the cargo has no place in U.S. courts.
Iraq’s attorneys agreed that the case should be resolved at home, but said the Kurdistan Regional Government has refused to appear before the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court, where a case is pending.
Dismissing the argument that U.S. maritime courts have no jurisdiction in this case, the lawyers representing Iraq’s Ministry of Oil said in court filings that Kurdistan thrust the matter into the U.S. legal system when it tried to offload the oil here earlier this year by hiring a lightering company and contracting with a refiner to buy the crude.
The lightering company backed out of the contract days after the tanker arrived off Galveston’s coast when Iraq threatened to sue any company that touched the cargo. Reports later surfaced that chemical giant LyondellBasell had contracted to buy the oil, but the company only acknowledged past purchases and vowed to cancel future buys until the ownership dispute was settled.
Meanwhile, Baghdad said it suspects that the tanker may have secretly offloaded some of its cargo in recent weeks. Their suspicions were stoked by comments made by Karwan Zebari, a congressional representative for the Kurdistan Regional Government, in a Bloomberg Businessweek article last month.
“It’s my understanding that some of the oil has been delivered,” the magazine quoted Zebari as saying. “Maybe 100,000 barrels or so.”
Iraq has claimed that the oil was stolen, smuggled out of the country through a pipeline to a Turkish port that bypasses the state oil company, which claims the right to broker all deals for Iraqi crude. The tanker remained anchored 60 miles off Galveston’s coast late Thursday, the last time it reported its position. Its draft hasn’t changed, indicating that if any 1 million barrels of oil aboard the ship were unloaded the amount wasn’t significant.
The case continues to stretch on though the Kurdistan Regional Government recently struck an accord with the country’s federal government over oil. In a statement posted Thursday on its website, the governing body of the semi-autonomous region said it agreed to exchange 150,000 barrels per day of crude pumped from Kurdistan in exchange for $500 million from Iraq.
Under new Iraqi government leadership, the two have been trying to work out some of their oil policy disagreements. The negotiations have taken on new fervor since falling oil prices have stripped the governments of needed cash to fend off attacks from extremist militants.
According to a statement by the KRG, Nechirvan Barzani, the KRG prime minister, will lead a delegation to Baghdad in the coming days to “develop a comprehensive, fair and constitutional solution for all the outstanding issues.”
“It’s draft hasn’t change”
MT a tank, refill with sea water. I did it. Its called ballast.
Tankers also have segregated ballast tanks they can fill as they discharge the oil (into lighters). They wouldn’t have to fill cargo tanks till their ballast tanks are full. They could discharge their entire cargo without a change in draft.
The ship may end up sailing away with the same draft someday, MT of all cargo.
The tanker owners want their ship back in service too.
Clearly, a blog without a copy editor.
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