By Mohammed Atti
OFF IRAQ’S COAST (Reuters) -Iraq’s navy has detained a Liberian-flagged oil tanker in its territorial waters as part of a crackdown on fuel smuggling at sea, sources with the navy and oil and transport ministries said on Friday.
Smuggling is common in Gulf waters, where heavily subsidised fuel from some countries is sold on the black market to buyers across the region, though it has been relatively rare until recently for Iraqi authorities to seize ships.
The vessel – identified by both the authorities and shipping sources as the Liliana tanker – was carrying 93,000 metric tons of fuel oil when it was intercepted earlier this week 26 nautical miles from Iraq’s coast near Basra’s oil terminal.
Reuters footage showed an armed Iraqi military team boarding and searching the vessel on Tuesday with the crew being questioned and their passports checked. Another ship was also stopped and searched, the footage showed.
Farhan Al-Fartousi, head of the General Company for Iraqi Ports, said the authorities had launched a comprehensive inspection operation after receiving information about smuggling and illegal oil operations in the area.
“Any vessels … engaging in suspicious activities within Iraqi territorial waters will be detained, and anyone proven guilty and anyone involved will be arrested,” he told Reuters during an inspection of the tanker.
The oil on board was suspected to be of Iraqi origin and was potentially being smuggled out of the country, the naval and ministry sources said.
They added that the vessel would remain in the location where it was seized until its papers were referred to the judiciary. It would then be towed to a port for a court to rule on the matter.
Liliana’s ship manager, which was listed in shipping databases as Dubai-headquartered Babylon Navigation, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The vessel’s last position was at anchor off the Iraqi coast with its previous destination listed as the Iraqi port of Khor Al Zubair, LSEG ship tracking data showed on Friday.
In March, Iraqi naval forces seized an unidentified ship in Iraqi territorial waters in the Gulf that was also suspected of smuggling fuel.
(Reporting by Mohammed Ati, Aref Mohammed in Basra in Basra, Muayad Kenany in Baghdad and Jonathan Saul in London; Writing by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Joe Bavier)
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