U.S. court takes on Iraq oil disputes
A Texas court has denied a KRG motion to dismiss, and will hear a full-blown trial on the fate of a 1 million barrel tanker of oil exported by Kurdistan.
A still image from video taken by a U.S. Coast Guard HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircraft shows the oil tanker United Kalavyrta approaching Galveston, Texas July 25, 2014. It carries around 1 million barrels of crude loaded by the KRG, which Baghdad has sued for possession of in U.S. court. (REUTERS/US Coast Guard handout)
The Iraqi Oil Ministry has won a procedural legal victory in its long-standing disputes with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over oil export rights.
The Southern District Court in Texas on Wednesday denied the KRG's motion to dismiss a case that is preventing the delivery of 1 million barrels of oil to customers in the U.S. The decision forestalls Kurdistan's attempt to establish a high-profile precedent that might enhance its ability to export oil independently, and keeps a million barrels of oil aboard the United Kalavryta, a Suezmax tanker currently idling in the Gulf of Mexico.
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