LONDON – Reuters
File photo of the oil tanker SCF Byrranga, which was renamed the United Kalavrvta in March 2014. REUTERS Photo
Iraq has said it filed a lawsuit against Greek shipping company Marine Management Services (MMS) for its role in the export of crude from the Kurdistan region, which Baghdad says is illegal.
The case is the latest move by Baghdad to deter customers and thwart independent exports of crude from the autonomous Kurdistan region. The federal government claims sole authority to manage sales of all the oil in Iraq.
The Iraqi oil ministry said on Sept. 4 that MMS operated five vessels that had transported oil on behalf of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from a Turkish port.
“MMS has actively facilitated the KRG’s illegal export scheme, repeatedly ignoring warnings that the crude oil it was carrying does not belong to the KRG,” it said in a statement, which did not specify when and where the case was filed.
“MMS is liable for damages of at least $318 million, and possibly significantly more, as a result of its willing and active participation in the KRG’s illegal crude oil export scheme.”
Athens-based ship manager MMS said it was not aware of any suit filed by the Iraqi government and maintained it was simply carrying out its business of transporting goods.
“We are not a party to this dispute, and any lawsuit filed against us by the Iraqi government is misdirected and ill-advised and will be robustly defended for lacking any basis and foundation,” MMS said in a separate statement on Sept. 4.
“The goods in this case are crude oil, which the KRG claims is rightfully theirs.”
MMS said if there was a dispute over the ownership of the cargoes, it had to be resolved between the government in Baghdad and the KRG “either through a political or failing that a judicial process.”
The Kurds began exporting oil in May via an independent pipeline, which links up with an Iraqi pipeline at the Turkish border to terminate at the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. More than 10 million barrels of oil have been shipped from the port since then, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Sept. 4.
The Iraqi oil ministry said MMS had declared false destinations for its tankers, turned off its ships’ tracking systems to avoid detection and undertaken ship-to-ship transfers of oil on the high seas at night, a process it described as “dangerous.”