The order by Magistrate Judge Nancy Johnson arresting the cargo on the 159,000-dwt United Kalavrvta (built 2005) comes on the request of the Iraq's Ministry of Oil (MoO), which accuses the Kurdistan Regional Government of unlawfully appropriating oil and exporting it through Turkey even though the commodity is controlled by the central government in Baghdad.
"Pursuant to the laws of the Republic of Iraq, [the] plaintiff MoO must approve the storage, transport, export or sale of any oil products belonging to the people of the Republic of Iraq, including the crude oil contained in the subject cargo," the ministry said in papers filed in the federal court in Galveston.
The
