Oil tanker with Kurdish crude goes missing off Texas coast

An oil tanker loaded with US$ 100 million of disputed Iraqi Kurdish crude has disappeared of the coast of Texas in the latest development in an argument between Baghdad and the Kurds.

The AIS ship tracking system used by the US Coast Guard on Thursday showed no known position for the United Kalavrvta, which was carrying 1 million barrels of crude and 95% full when it disappeared off the radars.

The United Kalavryta arrived near Galveston Bay on Saturday, but has since disappeared.

A Coast Guard official said the vessel in the Gulf of Mexico might have turned off its beacon, sailed beyond antennas that monitor transponders, or perhaps some antennas might have been taken out of service.

The conflict centres on ownership of the cargo: Baghdad says it has the exclusive rights to export the crude and has filed a lawsuit in a US court to reclaim control of the United Kalavrvta cargo and block the Kurdistan Regional Government from delivering it.

Edited from various sources by Elizabeth Corner

Sources: The Independent, National Headlines

Read the article online at: https://www.worldpipelines.com/business-news/29082014/oil-tanker-with-kurdish-crude-goes-missing-off-texas-coast/