Tanker unable to unload Kurdish oil as US court says it should be seized

One hundred kilometres off the coast of the US state of Texas sits a crude-oil tanker fully loaded with years of antagonism between the Kurdish region of Iraq and the central government in Baghdad.

The United Kalavrvta, a tanker the length of three football fields, is carrying millions of barrels of crude oil from the Kurdish region of Iraq. It set sail for Galveston, Texas, but never got there.

The central government of Iraq, despite recent military setbacks, sent its American lawyers to do battle in the federal court in southern Texas, where a judge ruled that the tanker's cargo, worth about US$100 million, should be seized if it came within Texas state waters.

The core of the dispute: The Iraqi government says that the crude cargo belongs to the Baghdad Ministry of Oil and that it was never the property of the Kurdistan regional government. But the Kurds argue that the Texas court doesn't have jurisdiction, and they filed a motion on Monday in the court to lift the restrictions on the oil.

Michael Howard, an adviser to the Kurdish minister of natural resources, said in an interview that "it's a constitutional issue that should be determined in Iraq and shouldn't be exported to US courts".

As the legal case plays out, the ship waits in the Gulf of Mexico, the fate of its cargo unclear. The drama in Texas is just part of a global play being made by the Kurdistan regional government, which is desperately seeking money in the midst of turmoil in Iraq. The Kurds, many of whom have long sought an independent state, say the central government in Baghdad has stopped providing the northern region with its share of the national budget.