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“U.S.-Flagged Tanker Was Approached by Armed Individuals Off the Coast.”
Last Thursday, an incident involving an oil tanker drew the attention of maritime authorities. The St Nikolas, flagged in the Marshall Islands, was approached by armed individuals off the coast of Oman, raising concerns about its fate. According to maritime sources in the United Kingdom, the tanker appeared to have changed course towards Iran, rekindling geopolitical tensions in the region.
Armed intruders boarded the St Nikolas while it was sailing near the city of Sohar, Oman. According to reports from the British maritime security firm Ambrey, the tanker’s AIS tracking system was turned off, raising suspicions about its course towards the Iranian port of Bandar-e-Jask. The incident has raised concerns about the safety of maritime oil transport, highlighting the vulnerability of tankers in conflict regions.
U.S. Seizure of the St Nikolas Oil Tanker
In 2023, the St Nikolas was seized by the United States in a sanctions enforcement operation when it was sailing under a different name, Suez Rajan.
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Under kilometers of water, rock, and salt, Brazil hides a colossal wealth that led an official guide from the U.S. government to recognize the country as the owner of the largest ultra-deep oil reserves in the world.
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Iran said that the Strait of Hormuz is open, but in practice only 1 non-Iranian oil tanker managed to cross in 24 hours — before the blockade, 100 ships passed per day.
The United States stated at the time that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran was attempting to send smuggled Iranian oil to China, in violation of U.S. sanctions.
The vessel carried 145,000 metric tons of oil from the Iraqi port of Basra and was headed to Aliaga in western Turkey via the Suez Canal, its operator Empire Navigation told Reuters, adding that it had lost contact with the vessel. Although Iran-backed Houthis from Yemen have attacked commercial ships in the Red Sea since October to show support for the Hamas Islamists fighting against the Israeli offensive in Gaza, these incidents have focused on the Bab al-Mandab Strait, southwest of the Arabian Peninsula.
An Incident Near the Strait of Hormuz
The Thursday incident is located near the Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iran.
The ship is crewed by a team of 19 people, including 18 Filipino citizens and one Greek citizen, the operator said, adding that it was chartered by the Turkish oil refinery Tupras.
The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported on Thursday that it received a report of a vessel located about 50 nautical miles east of the coast of Oman, which was boarded by four to five armed individuals.
The armed intruders were wearing black military-style uniforms and black masks.
UKMTO stated that the security chief reported the ship had changed course toward Iranian territorial waters and that communication with the tanker had been lost.
The UK’s authority, which provides maritime security information, stated it was unable to make further contact with the vessel and authorities were still investigating the incident.
The U.S. Fifth Fleet did not immediately respond to a request for comments or additional information.
The Suez Rajan transported more than 980,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil last year when it was seized and the oil confiscated in the U.S. sanctions enforcement operation.
It was not possible to offload the Iranian oil for almost two and a half months due to fears of secondary sanctions on the vessels used to unload it. It was renamed St Nikolas after the cargo was offloaded.
(Reuters – Reporting by Jana Choukeir, Ahmed Elimam, and Parisa Hafezi in Dubai; additional reporting by Andrew Mills in Doha and Eleftherios Papadimas in Athens; written by Nadine Awadalla; edited by Edmund Klamann and Ros Russell)
Vessels Activity Safety and Security Tanker Red Sea
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