Oil tanker seized near mouth of the Gulf

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

An oil tanker linked to dispute between Iran and the US has been seized off the coast of Oman, in a raid UK maritime authorities said was carried out by individuals in black military-style uniforms. 

The seizure of the tanker suggests that threats to shipping in the Middle East, already at their highest level in decades, have spread from the Red Sea to the Gulf.

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen have launched more than 25 attacks on commercial shipping in the southern Red Sea since November, prompting threats of a military response by western powers.

UK Maritime Trade Operations, which monitors shipping incidents in the region, said a vessel had been boarded by four to five “armed unauthorised persons” at 3:30am GMT on Thursday, adding they were reported to be “wearing military-style black uniforms”. It said they had lost contact with the vessel. 

Tanker Trackers, a private maritime intelligence service, identified the tanker as the St Nikolas and carrying Iraqi oil. The vessel, previously called the Suez Rajan, was seized by US authorities last year for transporting Iranian oil, sparking a retaliatory seizure by Iran of a tanker carrying Kuwaiti oil for US company Chevron. 

Empire Navigation, the Greece-based owner of the St Nikolas, in October announced it had settled a dispute with the US justice department over the vessel’s involvement in breaching the US’s sanctions regime.

The vessel is a “Suezmax” tanker, the largest kind that can use the Suez Canal fully laden. Such vessels can carry up to 1mn barrels of oil.

Information on marinetraffic.com, a vessel-tracking site, showed the vessel had been travelling from Basra, a significant oil-loading port in Iraq, to Aliaga, near Izmir in Turkey.

On Wednesday, the UN Security Council demanded an end to attacks on ships in the Red Sea and called on the Houthis to release the Galaxy Leader, a vehicle-carrying ship they seized and diverted in November, and its crew.