Iraq/Kurdistan: Behind the Kurdish Oil Mystery: Cash, Power Grabs and the Battle for Statehood

Sep 3, 2014 | Nigel Wilson, International Business Times
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When the oil tanker Kamari disappeared in the Mediterranean on 1 August, it was carrying around $100m (£60.7m, €76m) worth of crude from Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan.

Having departed from the Turkish port of Ceyhan, the tanker sailed to a spot around 200km from the Israeli and Egyptian coasts. In that seemingly innocuous location, its satellite tracking transponder suddenly shut off.

Four days later, the same ship reappeared in the same spot on global ship tracking systems. But its cargo, around 1 million barrels of Kurdish crude oil, had been unloaded.