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Photo: Reuters
Iranian military exercise
Photo: Reuters

Iran warship attacks Romanian oil rig

Spokesman for private Romanian company: Iranian warship first fired into the air, then fired at rig; half an hour later, troops from ship boarded and occupied the rig; company lost contact with 26 crew members shortly afterward

An Iranian warship fired on a Romanian oil rig off the coast of Iran on Tuesday, and troops from the vessel boarded and occupied the rig, the rig’s owner said.

 

At the Romanian Embassy in Tehran, political consul Yujin Chira confirmed the incident, but provided few details.. "Some forces opened fire. That an incident has happened is true. We have no details or the reason yet,” he said.

 

The Iranians first fired into the air and then fired at the Orizont rig, said Radu Petrescu, spokesman for the private Romanian company GSP. Half an hour later, troops from the ship boarded and occupied the rig, and the company lost contact with the 26 crew members shortly afterward.

 

Petrescu said he had no information about any injuries or deaths. The Orizont rig has been moored near Kish Island in the Persian Gulf since October 2005, he told The Associated Press.

 

Romania’s Realitatea TV reported that 20 Romanian crew members and seven Indians were on the rig. Romania’s charge d’affaires in Iran, Mircea Has, said the Romanian crew members were not injured, but that they were being detained on the rig’s helicopter pad.

 

Incident related to legal issues?

A Romanian lawmaker who leads the left-wing opposition accused Iran of taking a hostile action against Romania. He called on President Traian Basescu to lead an emergency meeting of the country’s supreme defense council and to take diplomatic action to free the crew and the rig. “The oil rig Orizont is Romanian territory,” said Mircea Geoana, who heads the Social Democratic Party.

 

Geoana served as foreign minister during 2000-2004.

 

GSP, also known as the Oil Services Group, is a private Romanian company established in 2004, which operates six offshore rigs that it bought from Romania’s largest oil company, Petrom.

 

Two of its rigs are operating near the Iranian coast in the Gulf as part of a deal signed between Petrom, GSP and Dubai-based Oriental Oil Co.

 

The Romanian company was in Iranian courts earlier this year over a dispute involving another oil rig, Fortuna, the financial weekly Saptamana Financiara has reported. It was unclear whether Tuesday’s incident was related to legal issues.

 

The Orizont rig was built in 1987 and weighs 13,000 tons. Kish, in the southern end of the Persian Gulf, houses the offices of about 100 Iranian and foreign oil companies.

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.22.06, 16:07
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