Iraq Accused of Smuggling Illegal Oil

The U.N. accused Iraq on Thursday of smuggling about $10 million worth of oil in violation of sanctions by loading the petroleum onto a tanker after U.N. inspectors had disembarked.

In 19 pages of documents submitted to the Security Council’s Iraqi sanctions committee, Benon Sevan, head of the U.N. oil-for-food program, said that about 500,000 barrels of oil were loaded onto the tanker Essex in May and August from the port of Mina al Bakr.

In a written response, Baghdad’s U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, said that the Iraqi oil marketing organization had found that all papers were in order and that it had “no information on the subject of your letter.”

The incident is the first alleged proof Sevan’s office has submitted on illegal oil sales, which oil traders say has been occurring for about a year.

Most of the information came from Greek Capt. Chiladakis Thofanis on the tanker Essex and was sent to the United Nations and the U.S. Embassy in Athens.