Bandits on the high seas: A tanker carrying $100 million of disputed oil disappeared off the Texas coast

Oliver Darcy
The Blaze
Sat, 30 Aug 2014 22:24 UTC

© U.S. Coast Guard via Reuters

An oil tanker traveling off the Texas coast with $100 million of disputed Kurdish oil has gone missing.

According to Reuters, the vessel completely disappeared from satellite tracking Thursday, showing no position on the AIS tracking system used by the U.S. Coat Guard.

A spokesperson for the Coast Guard was not immediately available for comment to TheBlaze, but an official told Reuters that it's possible the ship turned off its locating device, had some of its antennas removed from service, or sailed beyond a point that can be monitored with antennas that track transponders.

The tanker was reportedly carrying approximately one million barrels of crude oil and was 95 percent full when it fell off radar.

According to Reuters, Baghdad has maintained that they have the exclusive right to export the oil. A lawsuit is currently pending in a U.S. court to block the Kurdistan Regional Government from making deliveries.

On Monday, the court rejected an order to seize the cargo because it was hovering near the coast, Reuters reported.

This is not the first time that a vessel carrying disputed oil has gone missing from radar. A few days ago, another ship carrying Kurdish oil disappeared and then reappeared empty days later near Israel.

Comment: Perhaps this information can help answer an interesting question:

However, a question arises to which the Atlanticist media and the Gulf still has no answer: how can these [ISIS] terrorists sell oil on the international market so monitored by Washington? In March, the Libyan Benghazi separatists had failed to sell the oil that they had seized. The U.S. Navy intercepted the tanker Morning Glory and had returned it to Libya.

and, put into perspective with Kurdistan:

However, as I explained last week, the ISIL attack is coordinated with Kurdistan to cut Iraq into three smaller states, according to the map reshaping "the Greater Middle East" established by US Staff in 2001, that the U.S. military failed to win in 2003, but Senator Joe Biden had adopted by Congress in 2007.

A struggle over control of oil in Iraq continues to fuel conflict in the already tortured country. According to this article, "Growing oil sales could increase the KRG's economic independence from Baghdad and bolster their push to form a separate Kurdish state." This all fits in perfectly with the plan for Greater Israel.