Iraqi Kurdish oil arrives in Croatian port: Report

A tanker carrying Iraqi Kurdistan crude oil has arrived at a Croatian port to be delivered to Hungarian firm MOL to the relief of the regional government, which has been hit by setbacks in the US A delivery of crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan has arrived at the Croatian Adriatic port of Omisalj, Croatia’s Jutarnji List daily reported on the late hours of Aug. 16.

“A tanker with 80,000 cubic meters of crude oil has arrived at the Omisalj terminal and it should be unloaded on Sunday [Aug. 17],” the Jutarnji List daily reported on its website, citing a source from the state-owned oil transport operator Janaf.

Janaf was not available for an immediate comment.

“Four days ago we had an announcement about a delivery of crude oil from [Iraqi] Kurdistan. It was bought by Hungary’s [energy firm] MOL and the oil is for their refinery. All the documentation is in order, so I see nothing contentious in this shipment,” the source was quoted as saying.

Reuters exclusively reported on Aug. 15 that Iraqi Kurdistan had delivered its third major cargo of crude oil from a Turkish port and that a fourth was sailing to Croatia, showing the autonomous region is finding more buyers despite legal pressure from Baghdad and setbacks in the United States.

MOL, which partly owns Croatia’s two refineries, has invested in oilfields in Iraqi Kurdistan.

MOL declined to comment on the report about the oil shipment to Croatia.

Around $350 million in oil sales have been completed or are under way from shipments sent via the KRG’s new pipeline toTurkey, a Reuters analysis of satellite tracking data shows. The first vessel of pipeline crude sailed in May.

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