Disputed Kurdish oil tanker mysteriously goes dark off Texas coast

Hmm, if this is true, lookie there -- contested goods essentially going dark. They usually call that "smuggling".

For what it's worth, I've lived on the FL Gulf coast the vast majority of my life -- grew up down here, have a sister-in-law from a shrimper family. They've always spoken about a region in the Gulf they called the "Communications Dead Zone", which is to mean there is an area out there that isn't covered by comm & radar systems due to distance. Supposedly, that's where the shady stuff goes down, cartel movements, etc. If the Kurdish ship shut off it's tracking, I betcha that sucker is hunkered down in that area.

Where exactly it is I'm not sure of. I know it's a ways out there, though.

I just tried googling for info on this Comm Dead Zone area. Damn you, BP crap, you're making this difficult.

a reply to: Wookiep

Dem cartels wanted dat oil!



-SAP-

a reply to: sheepslayer247

Hmm, perhaps that is a possibility. I guess the only way we will know for sure is if it reappears in a couple days...

a reply to: Wookiep

True.

I do wonder why the Coast Guard is not planning to go try and find the ship. Considering all the hype surrounding the supposed terror threats, I figured they would at least do another fly-over.

a reply to: Wookiep

GCaptain is saying it is still offshore, but was intermittently transponding from the 26th, and there has been no change in draft. A quick look on AIS yeilded no results as of this posting. Lots of speculation. A ship like that has very few berthing options, so it would need to be offloaded at sea. It would be hard to conceal something like that 60 miles off Houston. As for piracy, that would be a very hard target, too much trouble, easier to go for a feeder vessle or supply ship than a supertanker. With respect to terrorism, unless they are planning to sink it and polute an already filthy gulf of mexico thanks to the deepwater horizon, it would be too hard to get that boat in close enough to make it an effective weapon.

After monday's ruling, chances are whomever chartered it will post bond and get their cargo.

gcaptain.com...


AX
FTNWO

Something I thought about Cyprus:

famagusta-gazette.com...

Its where Assad's chemical weapons were sent.

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

So it gets better ... we have tanker out in the dark that stopped in Cyprus and could have been carrying chemical weapons ... and a porous Southern border ... Yay!

originally posted by: Wookiep
a reply to: xuenchen



I doubt it sank, I'm sure someone would have heard a distress call somewhere if that was the case...



I'm not sure if pirates are common in the Gulf of Mexico, but a hijacking sure is possible. There are many who still believe the Malaysian plane was hijacked as well....



It just seems...off to me.

Ships can go down very fast sometimes, rouge wave..the Edmond Fitzgerald went down very fast, no distress call and on a lake to boot.

a reply to: vonclod

I guess you have a point then. I figured the size of the thing would at least allow for a distress call, but you never know with mother nature I suppose.

a reply to: Hellas

originally posted by: Hellas
Maybe its occupants are more "ISIS" than Kurds..

Yep, that was my first thought as well.

Shortly after 7:00PM EDT, I heard a military jet fly over very close to the ground going supersonic. When I was a kid, during the heat of the Cold War, it wasn't that unusual to hear and see something like this. These days it's very unusual.

It was headed West to East. When I got outside to see it, it was far off in the Eastern sky, banking South. It had dual tail fins. For some reason, F-15 came to mind. But it's possible that it was an F-35. If it was an F-15, it was probably USAF Reserve. If it was an F-35, it was definitely active AF.

It was unusual enough that one of the first places I came to was ATS. Given the sudden changes in alert status in Great Britain, and the enhanced activity of Homeland Security in the US, it may have been related. Also, the sudden disappearance of an oil tanker in the Gulf of Mexico doesn't calm my nerves any.

BTW, I'm in SW Virginia. So an aircraft moving in that direction would be headed for the East Coast, just South of Washington, DC.

Just thought I'd throw this out there, it's probably nothing. So, please hold your flames.




Dex

since there is a Dispute they needed to go dark so that they can offload at a off shore oil platform.

by offload at a off shore oil platform they do not have to go into a port where they can be subject to Arrest of Vessel

www.marineinsight.com...

Very well could be ISIS, I wouldn't put it past them. They are sneaky bastards and whos to say they didn't get their hands on a tanker.

I bet they could do it.

-SAP-

a reply to: SloAnPainful

My first thought was ISIS because the Kurds are fighting them and making some progress at pushing the terrorist back.

Seems like a good way to get back at them by dumping 100 million dollars worth of their product in the Gulf of Mexico, which would also adversely affect another of their enemies, the United States.


Dex

a reply to: DexterRiley

Very good points.

You connected those pieces pretty well. Star for you!

-SAP-

a reply to: SloAnPainful

Thanks.

I also don't think it would take an entire crew to cause such a mishap. A single operative with a Thermos bottle full of C-4 explosive could easily take out one of the compartments. This might cause either a chain reaction in the other compartments, or destabilize the vessel sufficiently to cause it to sink.


Dex

Just a random thing I'm going to throw out there. While I wouldn't put much faith at all in Judicial Watchs claim of an imminent threat an oil tanker that's brought into a port and detonated will make a very big boom.

a reply to: Aazadan

beeg bada boom!

The Cyprus ship was not the same ship.

The Kurds have done this before. They are selling oil from their lands, but of course Iraq claims it and has support of the international community.

Going dark is one way to prevent your load and perhaps ship from being confiscated.

While an interesting theory (ISIS) I just think this is just Middle East oil business as usual.

a reply to: bbracken677

We shall see, you might be right. If this is a common occurrence, then most of us weren't aware until now. We will know in a couple days, as the article stated the last time something similar happened, the ship reappeared a couple days later.

With that said, this doesn't seem to me like a business as usual, everyday case. Perhaps it was Yahoo's sensational headline, or that they reported on it in the first place that did it, but it just seems off to me.

a reply to: Wookiep

Dunno how common, but I do know that the kurds have done it enough that Iraq has filed in the US suing to prevent the Kurds from selling their oil here. lol

a reply to: bbracken677

Doesn't surprise me one bit. It's the same kind of thing our big corporations do here.. (Then they ask for bailouts, and get them)