Baghdad-Erbil oil tanker dispute continues

NEW YORK - Lawyers for Iraq’s Oil Ministry have until November 13 to convince a judge not to throw out its case to prevent the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from selling a tanker-load of oil in the US.

Iraq’s oil ministry launched a case against KRG’s Ministry of Natural Resources over its decision to sell the crude in the US via the United Kalavrvta, which has been moored in international waters near the port of Galveston, Texas, since July, when Baghdad filed lawsuits to halt the delivery.

The KRG’s lawyer, Harold Watson, told Rudaw that he has asked the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas to dismiss the case and that Baghdad’s lawyers have until November 13 to explain why Judge Gray Miller should not do so.

Watson said he would not go in to details about KRG’s motion because proceedings were ongoing. Attorney Phillip Dye, who represents the federal government in Baghdad in the case, was not available for comment.

The United Kalavrvta, a Marshall Islands-flagged vessel, reached the US on July 26, carrying 1 million barrels of oil that Baghdad says was stolen and smuggled out of the country – bypassing the state oil company that brokers all Iraqi crude deals.

Erbil says the crude was “legally produced, exported, and sold by the KRG in accordance with the Iraqi constitution and law”. Baghdad’s case “contains a number of false and irrelevant allegations”, the KRG says on a ministry website.

Washington says it will not get involved in a private dispute between Baghdad and Erbil.

“We do not have any updates to provide on the United Kalavrvta. Our position remains the same: This is a commercial transaction, in which the US government is not involved,” a State Department spokesperson told Rudaw.