Israel Accepts 1st Delivery of Disputed Kurdish Oil
A tanker delivered a cargo of disputed crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan's new pipeline for the first time on Friday in Israel, despite threats by Baghdad to take legal action against any buyer. The SCF Altai tanker arrived at Israel's Ashkelon port early on Friday morning, ship tracking and industry sources said. By the evening, the tanker began unloading the Kurdish oil, a source at the port said. The Kurdistan Regional Government said on Saturday, a day after the news was first reported, it did not deal with Israel in the sale. "The KRG categorically refutes the claim that it has sold oil to Israel," a spokesman for the Ministry of Natural Resources said in an email.
Kurdish Oil Tanker Leaves Moroccan Port Without Unloading
Iraqi Kurdistan's bid to sell its first tanker of crude oil appeared to suffer its second setback in as many weeks on Thursday after the ship left a port in Morocco without a sale which the central Iraqi government opposes. The United Leadership tanker, a symbol of a long-running feud between Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government over oil sale rights, loaded one million barrels of Kurdish crude on May 22 and has changed course twice abruptly without discharging oil. KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said last week the tanker was designed to show Baghdad that the Kurds controlled their own oil sales. But Iraq's central government in Baghdad, which has deemed any exports of oil not under its control illegal, so far appears to have been successful in warding off potential buyers.
