ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s oil marketing agency SOMO has blacklisted three foreign tankers for having transported crude on behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), according to the specialist Platts news service, quoting market sources.
Platts reported at the weekend that it had seen a decree from SOMO, issued late last month, banning the tankers – the Greek-registered United Carrier, United Dynamic and Nautilus – from entering Iraqi ports to lift crude for export.
The report said the decree gave no reason for the ban. However, Platts quoted market sources as saying the ban was a sanction against the tanker operators for transporting crude on behalf of the KRG.
The KRG in May this year began exporting Kurdish crude via a new pipeline to Ceyhan in Turkey.
The oil issue became the focus of deteriorating relations between Erbil and Baghdad.
The KRG opened the pipeline to Ceyhan in December. After strong opposition from Baghdad, Turkey said it would hold off allowing sales of Kurdish oil until it received Baghdad’s consent.
The Iraqi government refused to relent, however, and even froze the KRG’s share of the national budget. The oil began to flow in May when storage tanks in Ceyhan reached full capacity.
Sales, however, have been hampered by Baghdad’s threats of legal action against those who buy or facility the purchase of Kurdish oil.
SOMO’s English website, which made no reference to the latest tanker ban, insists on its monopoly over all oil sales from Iraqi territory and warns of the consequences.
Quoting laws from the Saddam Hussien era, SOMO says it alone has the exclusive right to export oil and gas from Iraq and warns it will take legal action against any company or entity that deals with anyone else. It also threatens to sue anyone who transports, sells or buys such shipments.
