Mystery of the missing tanker
Ship carrying $100million in Kurdish oil vanishes from radar screens 60 miles off the coast of Texas. ● A tanker loaded with $100 million of crude oil that has been at the center of a dispute over Iraq's oil billions vanished off the coast of Texas on Thursday. The Kurdish tanker disappeared from Coast Guard radar screens following a month of legal wrangling over whether it can offload its cargo in the U.S. As the disintegration of Iraq amid mounting violence continues, the semi-autonomous regime in Kurdistan – in the north of Iraq – is trying to cash in on Iraq's oil reserves and export its own crude. Iraqi Kurdistan has exported at least eight million barrels of oil since May, energy experts told Al Arabiya News. But the increasingly weak regime in Baghdad is trying to keep control of its oil billions and says the Kurdish regime cannot sell the oil in the U.S. The U.S. Coast Guard's AIS ship-tracking system showed no position for the United Kalavrvta on Thursday, which was carrying one million barrels - and was 95 per cent - when it went dark. The tanker was attempting to unload its cargo at sea, off the coast of Texas, after leaving the Turkish port of Ceyhan in June and anchoring near the U.S. port of Galveston in late July. The U.S. Coastguard confirmed to MailOnline today that the last contact the agency had with the United Kalavyrta was when the ship's certificate of compliance was completed on July 27.
PressTV: Tanker with $100 million Iraqi oil goes dark off Texas coast