Iraqi Oil

Sunken Fuel Tanker Had "Dirty" Oil

Oil leaking from a fuel tanker that sank in the Gulf off the coast of the United Arab Emirates while reportedly smuggling Iraqi oil was brought under control on Sunday, a UAE official said. The 3,500-ton Iraqi tanker Zainab, which sank on Saturday, was intercepted several days ago by the Multinational Interception Force that enforces sanctions against Iraq, an official at the Bahrain-based U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said. The ship, which was carrying about 1,300 tons of fuel oil, ran into trouble on its way to a holding area in international waters for ships suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil in violation of U.N. sanctions. It was reported that coast guard divers had managed to plug up holes in the tanker through which fuel oil had been spilling off the UAE's northern coast and that the leakage was now under "complete control". The oil slick reportedly had started to disperse and was being treated with environmentally safe chemicals by teams fighting the spillage. UAE officials have said they would try to salvage the tanker, which sank off the coast of Jebel Ali, north of Dubai. All crewmembers onboard were rescued.

Russian Tanker Stopped For Suspected Smuggling

A Russian tanker was intercepted in the Gulf on Thursday on suspicion of smuggling Iraqi oil in defiance of U.N. sanctions, a U.S. admiral said. The Akademik Pustovoyt was boarded in the southern Gulf by a team of Americans who took oil samples for analysis to see if the fuel was from Iraq, said Vice Admiral Charles Moore. He coordinates an international force patrolling the area and commands the U.S. Navy's Manama, Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet.

First Tanker Fixed For Next Phase Of Oil For Food Deal

The first tanker to carry Iraqi oil exports under the next phase of the U.N. "oil for food" deal has been chartered subject to the program being extended, according to shipping brokers. The Panamanian-registered VLCC Kristhild has been fixed to Russian trader Ursa to sail from the Gulf port of Mina al-Bakr to the U.S. Gulf, provided the United Nations and Iraq reach an accord to continue exports beyond Nov. 20. The 258

This Day in U.S. Naval History – January 18

1911 - First aircraft landing on board a ship, USS Pennsylvania by Eugene Ely. 1962 - After a flash fire in the Persian Gulf on Danish tanker, Prima Maersk, burned a crewman, USS Duxbury Bay transfers a Navy doctor to help the Danish crewman and USS Soley took him to the nearest hospital at Bahrain Island. 1968 - Operation Coronado X begins in Mekong Delta, Vietnam 1977 - The Trident (C-4) missile development flight test program commenced when C4X-1 was launched from a flight pad at

Seized Tanker Awaits Unloading

A Russian oil tanker seized in the Gulf for what the U.S. said was the smuggling of Iraqi oil docked in Oman on Monday (today), and its cargo will be unloaded soon, a Russian diplomat in the Gulf Arab state said. Russian officials said they expected the tanker, which was detained last week by a multinational patrol enforcing U.N. sanctions on Iraq, to be released after unloading. The U.S. says it had clear evidence the fuel was Iraqi.

Iraq Oil Lifting Remains on Hold

Iraqi oil lifting remained on hold as Baghdad continued to insist on a surcharge for crude sales under the UN's oil-for-food program, industry sources said. A tanker chartered to the Indian Oil Corp (IOC) remained berthed at Iraq's Mina al-Bakr port on the Gulf but that no oil was being pumped aboard. An industry official in India said that IOC had been asked to pay a surcharge outside the terms of the UN exchange in order to secure its cargo but had refused. Iraq suspended 2

Iraq Allocates $25M for Tanker Purchase

An official at the Iraqi Oil Tanker Company announced that the Transport Ministry has allocated $25 million to buy two oil tankers, the Middle East North Africa Financial Network reported. The capacity of each tanker will be 10,000 tons of crude oil. Iraq had its own tanker fleet but most of the ships were sunk during the country's wars with Iran in the 1980’s and the U.S. wars, one in 1991 and the other in 2003. However, the company still had a few ships with a total capacity of 60,000 tons

Revised Maritime Terminal Protection Procedures

A U.S. Marine stands security watch on the deck of the Al Basrah Oil Terminal (ABOT). U.S. Marines from the 1st Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team (FAST) Battalion, of Norfolk, Va., are providing extra security along with the Iraqi security teams after an attempted suicide attack on Iraqi oil terminals on April 25th. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Alan D. Monyelle. (RELEASED) Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Command/Commander, U.S

Iraq Plans to Renew Oil Tanker Fleet in S.Korea

Iraq aims to rebuild its ageing fleet of tankers to carry its crude oil exports and is planning to form a joint venture shipping company with a South Korean firm, the oil ministry's spokesman said on Monday. Jihad said ownership of the fleet would be transferred to Iraq's oil ministry after a period that would be specified in the final agreement. Other foreign companies had approached the ministry with offers to help rebuild Iraq's tanker fleet

EIA Expects OPEC Output To Rise

The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects OPEC countries to continue producing above their quotas, pushing the cartel's average output 770,000 barrels per day (bpd) above official levels for the quarter. OPEC's actual production would also be just 619,000 bpd lower during the first quarter from output levels at the end of last year, the agency said in its monthly OPEC update. That would be much less than the 1