the winner is...1,032,212 Barrels of Crude Oil
This is a fascinating case for a lot of reasons, not least the bold Kurdish move to use oil as the means of constructing a basis for their justifiable independent sovereignty and the corresponding reminder of the limits of U.S. jurisdiction in oceanic space. The case is officially called "Ministry of Oil of the Republic of Iraq v. 1,032,212 Barrels of Crude Oil Aboard the United Kalavrvta and the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Kurdistan Regional Governate of Iraq," in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Galveston). The ship is flagged in the Marshall Islands The U.S. had planned to seize the load of oil (worth $100 million) as a means of maintaining the status quo in Iraq. In other words, in stifling Kurdish independence in pursuit of failed Bush-era policies built upon failed post-WWI era imperialist reorderings. The LA Times apparently buys this idea, headlining its piece "Iraq and its Kurds fight over oil tanker off the Texas coast...