We recently told you about the United Kalavryta, an oil tanker carrying 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude that was forced to essentially do donuts in the Gulf of Mexico after Iraq sued to halt the shipment.
Now another ship bound for the U.S. carrying 300,000 barrels of crude from Kurdistan has been idled a few dozen miles from Ocean City Maryland after its buyer halted the shipment.
The Malta-flagged Minerva Joy was making its way up the Atlantic Coast when Axeon Specialty Products, an asphalt refining operation located in Paulsboro, New Jersey said it did not want to get mixed up in the dispute between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq's north, Argus research reports.
Iraq's oil ministry says the Kurds are illegally shipping product. A district judge in Houston ruled last month that the U.S. lacked the authority to unload the shipment since it was outside her court's jurisdiction, and that the dispute must be decided in Iraq. Baghdad does not appear to have filed against Minerva, Argus says.
The Kalavryta remains anchored in international waters near Galveston.
Here's the Minerva's exact location, via mindblowing global shipping data site MarineTraffic...
And here are its recent movements:
