Iraq commences legal actions against Greek shipper over disputed Kurdish oil issue

Ministry of Oil of Iraq, said that it had begun legal proceedings against a Greek shipping company for managing vessels loaded with disputed crude from the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
The oil ministry confirmed in a statement that it had opened the case at the Court of Piraeus in Greece against Marine Management Services (MMS). The case charges that MMS “actively facilitated the KRG’s illegal export scheme, repeatedly ignoring warnings that the crude oil it was carrying does not belong to the KRG,” the statement said. The ministry is seeking $318 million.
The lawsuit follows a second attempt by the Iraqi central government to file a case in the US over an oil tanker filed with Kurdish crude which is currently off the coast of Texas.
The vessel, the United Kalavrvta, is one of five managed by MMS which is accused of carrying Kurdish oil in defiance of Baghdad’s insistence that it has the sole right to sell oil produced within its borders.