Iraqi state oil marketer Somo has sold multiple cargoes of contaminated fuel oil, MEES understands. Reuters first reported on 21 September that Somo had recently sold a 600-700,000ton batch of straight run high sulfur fuel oil (SRHFO) that was contaminated with chlorinated organic compounds (COC). An informed source tells MEES that in fact multiple smaller contaminated fuel oil parcels were loaded onto a floating mother vessel, from which multiple cargoes have since been sold to several buyers.
According to a source close to the Iraqi government, the cargoes were exported from the ‘Good News’ and ‘New Tinos’ floating storage vessels. It is not yet clear how the contamination occurred, but the Good News has since been replaced with the Mesdar. Somo did not respond to a request for comment on the contamination. (CONTINUED - 289 WORDS)