Iraq plans to acquire a "large fleet" of oil tankers to transport the OPEC nation's crude to global markets, Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said in a statement.
The nation's tanker fleet was largely destroyed during the U.S.-led offensive to dislodge Iraq from Kuwait in 1991, according to the state-run Iraqi Oil Tankers Company's website. The company owned as many as 24 tankers in the 1980s.
"The ministry is keen to restructure the company and develop its operations by building and buying a large fleet of tankers," Luaibi told the company's management, according to the statement. Iraq is OPEC's second-largest producer, after Saudi Arabia.
