Mystery of the missing tanker: Ship carrying $100million in Kurdish oil vanishes from radar screens

dailymail.co.uk ^ | 8/29/14 | Jack Crone for MailOnline and Louise Boyle and Reuters

[ColdOne]

full title....Mystery of the missing tanker: Ship carrying $100million in Kurdish oil vanishes from radar screens 60 miles off the coast of Texas

A tanker loaded with $100 million of crude oil that has been at the center of a dispute over Iraq's oil billions vanished off the coast of Texas on Thursday.

The Kurdish tanker disappeared from Coast Guard radar screens following a month of legal wrangling over whether it can offload its cargo in the U.S.

As the disintegration of Iraq amid mounting violence continues, the semi-autonomous regime in Kurdistan – in the north of Iraq – is trying to cash in on Iraq's oil reserves and export its own crude.

[WayneS]

I confess. I have the tanker.

I’m hiding at me place in central Virginia.

[WayneS]

...MY place...

[thackney]

Galveston, still....

[ColdOne]

Thanks so much for that update.

[huckfillary]

Ragnar Danneskjold up to his old tricks.

[thackney]

Let’s be honest, it is tough to really lose a tanker too big to fit in the Houston Ship Channel. I don’t consider it really lost when nobody was looking beyond the transponder screen.

[ColdOne]

LOL......

[angcat]

I thought this was odd god knows what is going on.

[Ditter]

Is it waiting to go to Galveston or Freeport do you suppose?

[thackney]

It is too big to dock at either as I understand. It was going to lighter (use smaller ships to shuttle between dock and tanker) at Galveston but LyondellBasell canceled their delivery. It is believed there is no buyers at this time due to the controversy of the ownership.

[thackney]

Reported draught for this load is 53.5 feet deep.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/538005501/vessel:UNITED_KALAVRVTA

Galveston maintains a minimum channel depth of 45 feet, same as Freeport.

http://www.portofgalveston.com/index.aspx?nid=135

http://www.portsamerica.com/portoffreeport-texas.html

[Ditter]

Sounds reasonable. When I first saw this thread, I thought......(on no it’s sunk!).

[RckyRaCoCo]

...and many you can track info on with a cheap rtl-sdr dongle/free software .

[thackney]

it’s sunk

- - - -

I think we could find it then by the 9,000 acre oil slick.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I actually bought one a few weeks ago. Haven’t used it yet.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008XFDHWW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Ditter]

Yes, I have been out there fishing and the oil slick would be noticeable. I was hoping that would not be the next announcement. :)

[RckyRaCoCo]

Lot's of good RTL/SDR info here . The Hak5 crew have other YouTube videos for aircraft tracking(what I use it for), and other uses as well. Cheap geek toy.

[Noob1999]

Sail on to Venezuela, offload into tanks, then pump it into another ship.

Now you have “clean” oil.

[Moltke]

It's probably not really radar. It's probably a transponder, which can be switch off when desired.

Yeah, it's a bit of an enigma who the Daily Mail hires as "reporters" - clueless doesn't even begin to describe it, usually. Lots of entertainment every day, though. Most things are either "shocking" (anything involving firearms) or "hilarious" (some sick idiots doing revolting stuff). The comments to the articles are the only authentic content.