Thursday around 0330 UTC Iranian military boarded and seized a Greek-operated oil tanker, the St. Nicholas, off the coast of Oman. Communications with the vessel were lost. She then changed course towards Iranian territorial waters.
According to the Iranian navy, the vessel had been loading in Basra, Iraq, “a cargo of around 145,000 tons of crude oil destined to Aliaga (Turkey), via the Suez Canal”.
For almost a year, the tanker has been at the heart of tensions between Tehran and Washington, which has long imposed sanctions on Iranian oil because of its nuclear program.
The U.S. Department of Justice seized the tanker at sea last April, while she was carrying Iranian oil, under the name Suez Rajan.
U.S. authorities brought the tanker back to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where she unloaded the oil after months of delay. The tanker was subsequently renamed St Nicholas.
On April 19, the shipowner finally pleaded guilty and was fined $2.5 million, while the Greek operator Empire Navigation agreed to cooperate with the US authorities. The cargo of crude oil, then in South-East Asia, had been repatriated to the United States without the American administration making this explicit.
The seizure of this tanker is an opportunity for Iran, at a time when the US Navy is concentrating its efforts in the Red Sea.
Maritime transport in this oil-rich region is also under strain due to repeated drone and missile attacks by Yemeni rebels in the Red Sea over the past few weeks.
