http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/uk-libya-tanker-identity-idUKBREA2I19F20140319?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNewsExclusive
- The mysterious journey of the Libya oil tanker
TRIPOLI/LONDON Wed Mar 19, 2014 3:05pm GMT
(Reuters) - What began late last year as a routine new assignment for
Pakistani sea captain Mirza Noman Baig ended in a dramatic night-time
rescue as U.S. special forces seized the ship his family said he was forced
to operate by Libyan rebels.
U.S. Navy Seals took control of the Morning Glory oil tanker in
international waters off Cyprus on Sunday night, along with a cargo of oil
that U.S. officials said had been stolen from the Libyan people, whose
fragile government Washington supports.
Libya says gunmen demanding regional autonomy and a share of oil wealth
managed to load crude onto the ship, which then escaped its navy. The
embarrassment to the government in Tripoli prompted parliament to sack the
prime minister.
Industry sources say much about the tanker has been a mystery since it
showed up in eastern Libya nearly two weeks ago; the identity of its owner
and operator were unknown, as was its ultimate destination and the buyer of
its cargo.
According to Captain Baig's $9,000-a-month contract, sent to Reuters by his
family in Karachi, the operator was Dubai-based Saud Shipping, part of the
ZAD Group of companies, which trades and moves oil around the Gulf.
The contract, signed in November, is on paper with a Saud Shipping
letterhead and is stamped and counter-signed by the firm.
Baig's family say the captain received direct orders from Saud Al Anazi,
the head of ZAD Group, to stop near a rebel-held eastern Libyan port. Here,
according to Baig's family and Libyan officials, armed men boarded and
loaded the ship with oil.
Libya's government has threatened legal action against anyone involved in
helping the rebels export oil. It has not made any allegations of
wrongdoing by the captain, by ZAD or Anazi.
ZAD's Anazi denied involvement in any plan to help the rebels sell oil. He
declined to comment on Baig's contract and did not respond to multiple
requests for further comment on the ownership and operations of the vessel.
In a contract seen by Reuters dated February 22, 2014, Anazi is named as
selling the tanker through a company called Morning Glory International Inc
to a Libyan buyer.
On Tuesday Libyan rebels released a statement saying an individual still
aboard the vessel had bought the ship, without revealing from whom. They
accused the United States of "piracy" for raiding the ship.
It is not clear if the Morning Glory was Anazi's to sell, and he did not
reply to requests for comment.
An archived page on ZAD Group's website shows an undated press release
announcing "the procurement" of the vessel. But Sharjah-based Sea Pride
Shipping said last week it was the owner, though it had not been operating
the tanker since 2011.
It said it had started legal proceedings against Saud Shipping, which it
said had refused to return the vessel.
"Sea Pride Shipping is very happy that the vessel has been seized," the
company said in a statement on Monday, issued by a spokesman for a firm
controlled by the Al Sari family.
Two members of the Al Sari family in the United Arab Emirates are the
directors of Sea Pride Shipping. The Al Sari family controls the FAL Group,
whose oil trading arm, FAL Oil Co, was sanctioned by Washington in 2012 for
allegedly selling refined petroleum to Iran, which it denies.
Another FAL company, FAL Shipping, continued to get insurance cover for the
Morning Glory until last month, the vessel's recent insurer said.
"According to our records, FAL Shipping Co Ltd was our insured member until
February 27, 2014," said Anders Leissner of Swedish Club.
However, he said the insurance cover ended at that point because FAL
Shipping sold the vessel to an unknown entity.
The spokesman for the Al Sari family-controlled company declined to comment
on the Morning Glory's insurance or whether it had been sold.
Libya has said it believes the owner is an unnamed Saudi company.
TAKEN HOSTAGE
Public ship tracking data indicates that the tanker's position was not
broadcast between January 2013 and last month, when it reappeared on
February 28 and entered the Suez Canal en route to eastern Libya.
It was Captain Baig, having boarded the vessel in Eritrea in November, who
took it through the Suez Canal, his brother-in-law Ayaz Malik said by phone
from Karachi.
After passing through the Suez Canal, Baig was ordered by ZAD's Anazi to
stop outside the Libyan port of Es Sider, Malik said. Armed rebels then
sailed out from the port and boarded the ship, forcing the crew to dock and
load it with oil.
"My husband and the crew have been held hostage by the rebels," Baig's
wife, Qurat Noman Baig, told Reuters from Karachi.
"He did not want to dock at the Libyan port, but the rebels came on board
and forced the crew at gun point to load the oil."
Reuters has not been able to independently confirm this account.
Despite warnings from Tripoli that the ship would be bombed if it left Es
Sider, it sailed out of the port on March 11 under fire from the lightly
armed Libyan navy.
Baig subsequently received directions from Anazi to head towards Greece,
his brother-in-law Malik said, and shortly afterwards the U.S. seized the
vessel.
A Cypriot police source said two Israelis and a Senegalese who flew into
Cyprus by Learjet and took a charter vessel toward the tanker were detained
for questioning on Saturday on suspicion of attempting to buy the cargo,
which Libya considers stolen.
The source said the men, two of whom had diplomatic passports - one from
Senegal and one from a central African country - were freed after a court
declined to issue an arrest warrant and the men then left for Tel Aviv.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing, Jonathan Saul, Steve Stecklow, Lin Noueihed and
David Sheppard; Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Humeyra Pamuk
in Ankara; Writing by David Sheppard; Editing by Will Waterman)
Received on Wed Mar 19 2014 - 11:17:33 EDT