Companies Sue Valero for Bad Marine Fuel
Two companies filled lawsuits this week in federal courts in Texas alleging that ships they operated in 2018 were damaged by contaminated bunker fuel sold by a Valero Energy Co subsidiary Valero Marketing and Supply Co, according to court documents.A Valero spokeswoman did not reply to a request for comment.The National Shipping Co of Saudi Arabia said it paid out more than $1.1 million for repairs and replacement fuel for a ship that drifted at sea for two days before restarting and arriving at Alexandria…
SBM Offshore to Pay $238 Mln in US Bribery Case
SBM Offshore NV, a Netherlands-based maker of offshore oil drilling equipment, and its U.S. subsidiary, SBM Offshore USA Inc, agreed to settle criminal charges of bribing officials in five countries and pay a $238 million penalty, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday. The companies agreed to settle charges related to schemes lasting more than a decade involving bribery of foreign officials in Brazil, Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Kazakhstan and Iraq, in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), the Justice Department said in a statement. SBM Offshore USA pleaded guilty on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the statement said.
US Jury Rules in Favor of Apache Corp.
Apache Corp was not in breach of contract in a lawsuit brought by Houston-based oil and gas producer W&T Offshore Inc in 2011, a federal jury found on Monday, according to a court filing. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has accepted the jury verdict and W&T can file any post-verdict motions by Jan. W&T filed a claim against Apache in 2011, accusing the energy company of breaking the terms of a processing contract and inaccurately recording how much processed oil W&T was owed. Apache on Monday also filed a $31.5 million counter lawsuit, accusing W&T Offshore of breaching the parties' joint operating agreement by refusing to pay its 49 percent share of plugging and abandonment costs for three offshore wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
Iraq to Appeal US Court Decision on Kurdish Oil
The Iraqi oil ministry said on Thursday it would challenge a U.S. court decision that stopped U.S. Marshals from seizing some one million barrels of disputed Kurdish oil docked near Texas. On Monday, a U.S. district court ruled in favour of a request by Iraq's Kurdish region that a demand by the Iraqi government for U.S. authorities to seize the Kurdish oil shipment be scrapped. However, the court gave Baghdad 10 days to resubmit its case. "The ministry of oil is emphasising that it is preparing the amended request and will forward it in the required period," the oil ministry said in a statement. "The decision of the court is only to lift the seizure of the shipment while at sea. Therefore they referred to American maritime law.
Kurds Ask US Court to Scrap Seizure Order, Allow Crude Delivery
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq asked a U.S. court on Monday to throw out an order to seize some 1 million barrels of disputed crude oil and allow the cargo to be freely delivered in Texas. The United Kalavrvta tanker, carrying about $100 million worth of Kurdish crude, has been anchored near Texas for nine days, as the Iraqi region of Kurdistan wages a legal battle over ownership with the central government of Iraq. At the request of Baghdad, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to take control of the cargo last week, but then said the tanker was outside its jurisdiction and beyond U.S. territory in the Gulf of Mexico.
Kurdistan Says Crude Cargo Near Texas Legally Sold
A $100 million cargo of crude oil in a tanker near Texas was legally shipped and sold by Kurdistan, lawyers for the autonomous region in Iraq told a U.S. court in a letter seen on Thursday, saying Baghdad has no right to the barrels. They also told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas that it has no jurisdiction over Kurdish affairs. Baghdad, in a lawsuit filed with the court earlier this week, said that only it has the authority to export oil under Iraq's constitution, a view that autonomous Kurdistan government rejects. "The oil cargo in question belonged to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) before it was legally shipped and sold pursuant to KRG's authority under the 2005 Iraqi Constitution and subsequent Kurdistan law…
Update: U.S. to Seize Kurdish Oil from Tanker off Texas
U.S. authorities are set to seize a cargo of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan anchored off the Texas coast after a judge approved a request from Baghdad, raising the stakes in an oil sales dispute between Iraq's central government and the autonomous region. The tanker United Kalavrvta, carrying some 1 million barrels of Iraqi Kurdish crude oil worth more than $100 million, arrived near Galveston Bay on Saturday, but has yet to unload its disputed cargo. The U.S. judge's approval of the request from Baghdad deals another blow to the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) attempts to establish its own oil sales, which are seen as a crucial step in the autonomous region's push for independence.
U.S. Marshalls Ordered to Seize Kurdish Oil Cargo off Texas
Acting on a request from the central government in Iraq, a U.S. judge has signed an order telling the U.S. Marshals Service to seize a cargo of oil from Iraqi Kurdistan aboard a tanker off the coast of Texas, court filings showed early on Tuesday. To carry out the order from Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the Marshals Service may need to rely on companies in the Galveston Bay area that provide crude offloading services. The United Kalavrvta tanker, which is too large to enter the port of Galveston near Houston, was given clearance by the U.S. Coast Guard on Sunday to transfer its cargo offshore to smaller boats that would deliver it to the U.S. mainland.
Greek Maritime Officer Acquitted in Pollution Trial
A jury in Houston federal court cleared Greek maritime officer Ioannis Mylonakis of charges that he engineered the dumping of oil tanker waste off of the Texas coast in early 2009, according to the Berg & Androphy law firm. The jury rejected claims by U.S. Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section that Mylonakis, as chief engineer of the 40,000-ton M/T Georgios M, ordered his crew to use a so-called "magic pipe" to bypass pollution control equipment and discharge sludge and oily waste into the seas near Houston and Corpus Christi, Texas. Mylonakis is represented by lead attorneys Joel Androphy and Kathryn Nelson, of Berg & Androphy, of Houston, and assisted by George M. Chalos and George A. Gaitas, of the Chalos & Co., P.C., of New York.
Ship Operator Pleads Guilty, Concealing Pollution
A Panamanian company that operated a 40,000-ton oil tanker ship that regularly made calls in multiple ports in Texas pleaded guilty Oct. 21 in federal court in Houston for deliberately concealing pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea, the Justice Department announced. Styga Compania Naviera S.A., the operator of the M/T Georgios M, pleaded guilty to three felony violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law. According to a plea agreement filed with U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, the company has agreed to pay a $1m criminal fine along with a $250…
Transocean Announces Settlement and License Agreement
Transocean Inc. announced that one of its subsidiaries has entered into a settlement and license agreement with Noble Corporation. In the agreement, the Transocean subsidiary granted to Noble a worldwide and non-exclusive license to utilize Transocean's patents for offshore dual activity drilling methods and structures on the semisubmersible rig Noble Clyde Boudreaux which is currently working in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The agreement follows a settlement of Transocean's February 2007 patent infringement suit against Noble in the U.S. District Court of the Southern District of Texas, Houston division. In the lawsuit, Transocean alleged that a recent upgrade to the Noble Clyde Boudreaux infringed claims of the Transocean patents.
Transocean Reaches Agreement on Patent Infringement Lawsuit
Transocean Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement in its dispute with contract driller GlobalSantaFe over patent infringement of Transocean's offshore dual activity drilling technology. The agreement follows an amended final judgment entered last month by a federal district court against GlobalSantaFe. The judgment awarded damages to Transocean and permanently enjoined GlobalSantaFe from further infringement of the Transocean dual activity patents. On January 19, 2007, Judge Sim Lake of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas entered an amended final judgment against GlobalSantaFe following a jury verdict in Transocean's favor. In August 2006, a federal jury found in favor of Transocean after a trial of approximately two weeks before Judge Lake.
Jury Verdict in GlobalSantaFe Patent Lawsuit Released
According to GlobalSantaFe Corporation, a Houston jury has returned a verdict upholding the dual drilling activity patents of Transocean Inc. and ordered GlobalSantaFe to pay damages of $3.6m for using the patented structures on two of its offshore rigs. The jury also found that GlobalSantaFe willfully infringed the patents, which gives the court the discretion to enhance the damage award. The trial, which began last week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, addressed the use of the patented structures only within U.S. territorial waters. In June 2006, the European Patent Office revoked Transocean's dual activity patent claims.
