Iraq takes a new tack to seize tanker off Texas coast

[HOUSTON] Iraq's Oil Ministry has asked a US judge for permission to change its legal arguments in a bid to seize US$100 million in Kurdish crude waiting in a tanker off Texas since late July.

Stymied by the judge's ruling last month that he didn't have jurisdiction under admiralty law, the nation has come back with claims under maritime and Texas statutes.

US District Judge Gray Miller in Houston threw out an arrest warrant that gave federal agents authority to take the 1 million-barrel cargo and store it, at Iraq's expense, if the tanker entered US waters. Justice Miller said he had no authority to intervene in a foreign ownership dispute under US laws governing property stolen on the high seas. Iraq cited those laws as the basis to recover crude exported from wells in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan without permission.