Dispute Over Fate of Mysterious Tanker With Oil From Libya

Mar 10, 2014 | Clifford Krauss, The New York Times
View Original

HOUSTON — A tanker that had been sitting for three days in a Libyan port controlled by a regional militia has what every refinery in Europe wants: some of the highest quality oil in the world, so sweet it needs little refining to process into high-grade fuel.The tanker reportedly left the port on Monday afternoon, but oil experts wondered where it went, while the Obama administration has promised to do what it can to make sure it does not sell its valuable cargo. Industry experts say it is hard to imagine a port that will accept the illicit fuel.The vessel, the Morning Glory, whose ownership is unclear, obtained the oil from militia groups that have blockaded several Libyan oil ports for more than six months, demanding more autonomy and oil revenues for the eastern regions of the country.The Morning Glory apparently tried, unsuccessfully, to slip in and out of Libya quietly. And when it left port on Monday it set off a new dispute — about its fate. Officials of the transitional government in Tripoli said they had seized the tanker, and the militia group controlling the port insisted that the vessel had sailed away. Neither claim could be confirmed. Similar assertions by the government had proved false before.The Libyan government has vowed to prevent the tanker, which arrived at the port of Es Sider on Saturday, from leaving, and Libya’s prime minister, Ali Zeidan, has threatened to take military action if necessary.Mr. Zeidan has also repeatedly been unable or unwilling to carry out military threats to restore the oil exports that finance his government. Nonetheless, he has been aided by a global oil market in which it is not easy to move and sell oil that is obviously stolen or the object of sanctions.Iran has had as many as 30 million barrels sitting undelivered in Iranian tankers in recent years because of the American and European oil embargo intended to counter Iran’s nuclear program. An Indian tanker loaded with 600,000 barrels of Sudanese oil was stranded at sea two years ago off the coast of Japan because of a claims dispute between Sudan and South Sudan.The State Department backed Libya with a strong statement over the weekend, sharply condemning the mysterious tanker and noting that Libyan oil belongs to the Libyan National Oil Company and joint venture partners, which include several American oil companies.“This action is counter to law and amounts to theft from the Libyan people,” said Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman. “Any oil sales without authorization from these parties places purchasers at risk of exposure to civil liability, penalties and other sanctions in multiple jurisdictions.”Oil industry experts said the operators of the Morning Glory probably wanted to copy the playbook of tanker operators who buy and market stolen oil from Nigeria. They could have tried to market the oil in another Mediterranean port, sail it down the coast of Africa and sell it to refineries there, or sell it to other tanker companies operating in Europe and Africa that would mix the contraband crude with legal varieties.“Now that the tanker has been discovered, the prospects for them to unload the oil and resell it are very thin,” said David L. Goldwyn, a former State Department coordinator for international energy affairs in President Obama’s first term, “because through satellites and other means we can identify the ship and the other tankers and other ports it might try to transfer the oil to.”