Iran Fires On, Seizes Romanian Oil Rig

Update: I should have elaborated just a bit more. Iran's great leverage until it acquires a nuke is the Strait of Hormuz. However valid its complaints against Romania are, or aren't, is irrelevant given the proximity of the oil platform to the Strait. Much like running war games, this is another in your face move which also shores up their strategic position to inhibit oil flow through the Strait. It's also another source for ecological disaster they control as a potential deterrent to being attacked.

Iran said it would respond to the UN resolution on its nuclear program in multi-faceted ways. See Allah for the details on that.

But given that part of Iran's previous complaints about a Romanian Oil rig in the Strait of Hormuz have to do with its relationship with Haliburton, it's difficult to conclude this additional belligerence isn't tangential.

There are 26 Romanians currently on the rig and the Romanian government cannot establish contact with the crew. Bob at CY thinks the story isn't getting much pub because they haven't figured out how to blame Bush, yet. They will.

Aug. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Iran attacked and seized control of a Romanian oil rig working in its Persian Gulf waters this morning one week after the Iranian government accused the European drilling company of ``hijacking'' another rig.

An Iranian naval vessel fired on the rig owned by Romania's Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP) in the Salman field and took control of its radio room at about 7:00 a.m. local time, Lulu Tabanesku, Grup's representative in the United Arab Emirates said in a phone interview from Dubai today.

``The Iranians fired at the rig's crane with machine guns,'' Tabanesku said. ``They are in control now and we can't contact the rig.'' The Romanian company has 26 workers on the platform, he said.

Iran, which holds the world's second-largest oil and gas reserves, is due to respond today to a European Union-led offer of incentives aimed at persuading it to halt uranium enrichment activities that are crucial to its nuclear program.

Neither the press office of Iran's oil ministry nor the one of Iran's revolutionary guards could be reached for comment when called. Today is a national holiday in Iran.

Crude oil for September was at $72.56 a barrel, up 11 cents, on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 12:06 p.m. in London. The contract expires today. The more-active October contract was up 7 cents at $73.37 a barrel.

Straits of Hormuz

Iran urged the United Arab Emirates last week to help it return another oil rig owned and operated by the Romanian company in the same waters close to the Straits of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world's daily oil supply moves on tankers.

Grup said it recovered its rig last week because of a contractual dispute with its Iranian client, Oriental Oil Kish.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suspended Oriental Oil's activities in 2005 on alleged corruption activity and ties to Halliburton Co. of the U.S. The U.A.E.-registered drilling company had signed a preliminary contract with Halliburton after winning an estimated $310 million contract to develop phases 9 and 10 of Iran's offshore South Pars gas reservoir.

Mircea Geoana, the head of the Social Democratic Party, the main opposition party in Romania, called on the government to ``undertake all diplomatic measures necessary'' to persuade the Iranians to release the rig.

Comments

[rwilymz]

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/22/iran.inspectors/index.html

"Ready to talk" doesn't necessarily mean anything more than "we want to be contrarian in person".

[tester]

"ready to talk"

Smells of stalling...

[old trooper]

Clearly Iran is testing the tolerance level for acts of hostility for future "talking points" with Western Civilization. They know that they already have the UN buffaloed. Just add those Romanian oil workers to the population of Lebanon, they are all held hostage at this point. Then be ready to add the Strait of Hormuz to their list of conquered territory.

You must clearly understand the mindset before dealing with Iran. The Iranian Predident is a very polished bullsh*t artist extraordinare. The Mullahs and Imams are just selling the same old 7th century used car to the 'faithful'. Believe everything that you see them do and absolutely nothing that they have to say. The Media and the UN is now their forum. They are masters of both timing and propaganda. While they engage in windbag diplomacy, they are just tying you up while they are positioning for another threat.

Effectively controlling the Strait will control the Western Economies, without actually cutting off oil production. Oil that is stored for later sale balloons in value. Granted, the Saudis, Kuwait and the UAE will take a dim view of that but the Saudis have never been a Military power in the Region. The US has always taken on the duty of keeping the Strait open for tanker traffic in the past. We must be willing to do it again, with the force necessary to accomplish that task. Or your $3,00 a gallon gasoline will be just a fond memory. Europe and Japan have been paying more than that for some time. The Russians honestly do not care, they have sufficient domestic petroleum reserves.

Iran, at this time has no nukes. Their 'missles' are two steps above the SCUD bottle rocket technology. Their Navy is of the very light patrol craft, by comparison the US Coast Guard has them out gunned and is superior in numbers of vessels. Their Air Force is old inferior Warsaw Pact garage sale equipment. Their Army sports old Russian made T-72`s as their armored threat, as well as everyone who can hold a Kalashnikov as Infantry.

Now, if they keep us talking long enough, they may refine enough material to build a few low yield nukes and become a threat to their neighbors. Sanctions without teeth are worthless. Sanctions with severe consequences have value. The time to stop 'cutting bait' is drawing very near.

Remember, they fought Saddam for 8 years to a draw. We whipped Saddam`s backside twice. Sanctions without teeth meant nothing to Saddam. They mean even less to Iran. Diplomacy right now smells and looks like Munich, 1938. 1939 followed and the agreements were nul. You win against Terror by giving the bad actors something to fear. They by and large ignore anything less. If you do not understand that, you do not understand their mindset.

[Phoenix]

Isn't that the problem? Some of us are unable to accept that 'they' do not think as we do. We foolishly transfer our thinking to them and that is where we go wrong. (I use the term 'we' very generously here. Anyone with half a brain knows fighting religious ideology with logic and 'fair play ROE' won't work.) We cannot comprehend that they value nothing but the spread of their ideology, while we fuster about lining up and dissecting which of our values we should suspend in order to get the job done - and we end up nowhere.

War is hell because hell is where values don't count. Let that be the ROE.

[OR]

"War is hell because hell is where values don't count."

Damn that's a good one.

[rwilymz]

that is a good one.

shit, two slick turns of phrase in the last week -- the 'solipsistic' thing was the other. been a long time since i used that word. doesn't present itself much.

you're one over your limit. throw one back.