The Iranian Navy announced this Thursday the capture of a “American tanker” in the Sea of Oman, hours after the British Navy reported the seizure of a ship by “unauthorized armed persons” in those waters.
“The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the seizure of a US oil tanker in the waters of the Sea of Oman by court order,” the Iranian naval force reported in a brief statement released by the Tasnim agency.
The Iranian authorities They did not report the name of the ship nor did they offer more details about it.
The brief announcement comes hours after the British Navy reported that a ship was boarded “by 4-5 unauthorized armed people at approximately 3.30 GMT” in an incident that occurred 50 miles northeast of Sohar, Oman.
The captured vessel is the oil tanker “St. Nikolas” which sailed under the flag of the Marshall Islands and belongs to the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation.
According to the Greek state agency AMNA, the ship is manned by a total of 19 people, one of Greek nationality and 18 of Filipino nationality.
The ship in question – when it was still sailing under the name “Suez Rajan“- was involved in a year-long dispute in which the US Department of Justice ended up seizing one million barrels of Iranian crude oil he was transporting.
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According to AMNA, the ship had loaded in Basra, Iraq, some 145,000 tons of oil and its final destination was the city of Aliaga (Turkey), since it had been chartered by the Turkish state oil company Tupras.
However, the ship is now heading towards the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Jaskaccording to a statement issued by the British maritime security company Ambrey Analytics.