Iraqi Oil Tankers Co (IOTC) officially inaugurated its fifth products tanker Akkad (IMO: 9948970) on 11 March with a ceremony at Khor al-Zubair port in Basra. The new 31,000 DWT medium range tanker began operations in January and joined IOTC’s small fleet of handysize vessels in shuttling high-sulfur fuel oil from the inner ports of Khor Al-Zubair and Um Qasr South further offshore to the Khor al-Zubair lightering area in Iraqi territorial waters for ship-to-ship transfers.
Akkad is IOTC’s second MR vessel, after Sumer (IMO: 9948968) which began operations in late-2023 according to Kpler. Both China-built vessels were procured with the help of Norway’s Batservice Mandal AS which delivered them in early-2023. (CONTINUED - 137 WORDS)