Oman chaos as oil tanker seized by 'six military men' and contact with ship lost
An oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman was boarded by "unauthorised" people in military uniforms early this morning and all contact with the ship was lost, an advisory group run by the British military and a private intelligence firm warned.
Suspicion immediately fell on Iran as the ship was once known as the Suez Rajan and had been involved in a yearlong dispute that ultimately saw the U.S. Justice Department seize 1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil on it. The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which warns sailors in the Middle East of threats, described receiving a report from the ship's security manager of hearing “unknown voices over the phone” alongside the ship's captain. It said that further efforts to contact the ship had failed and that the men who boarded the vessel wore "black military-style uniforms with black masks."
The British group said the incident began early in the morning in waters between Oman and Iran in an area transited by ships coming in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes. The private intelligence firm Ambrey said that “six military men” boarded the ship, which it identified as the oil tanker St. Nikolas. It said that the men had covered the surveillance cameras as they boarded. The St. Nikolas is associated with the Greek shipping company Empire Navigation. The Athens-based firm did not immediately respond to the Associated Press request for comment.
The apparent seizure also comes after weeks of attacks by Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels on shipping in the Red Sea, including their largest barrage ever of drones and missiles launched late Tuesday. That has raised the risk of possible retaliatory strikes by U.S.-led forces now patrolling the vital waterway, especially after a United Nations Security Council vote on Wednesday condemning the Houthis and as American and British officials warned of potential consequences over the attacks.
In September, Empire Navigation pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine over a case involving the tanker Suez Rajan, which carried some 1 million barrels of oil. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incident. Iran and Oman did not immediately acknowledge the boarding.
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Since the collapse of Iran's nuclear deal, waters around the strait have seen a series of ship seizures by Iran, as well as assaults targeting shipping that the Navy has blamed on Tehran. Iran and the Navy also have had a series of tense encounters in the waterway, though recent attention has been focused on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen attacking ships in the Red Sea amid Israel's war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The United States and its allies also have been seizing Iranian oil cargoes since 2019. That has led to a series of attacks in the Mideast attributed to the Islamic Republic, as well as ship seizures by Iranian military and paramilitary forces that threaten global shipping.
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