Seized Marshall Island’s Flagged Tanker Located East Of Iran’s Qeshm Island

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was seized on Thursday by Iran in the Gulf of Oman and has been located toward the east of the country’s Qeshm Island, per reports from monitoring service TankerTrackers.com.

Iran has detained St. Nikolas, which was loaded with Iraqi crude that was headed for Turkey, in retaliation for the confiscation last year of the same vessel and Iran’s oil cargo by the U.S., per Iran’s state media.

The UN-insured, Greek-owned, Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Suezmax ST NIKOLAS was laden with one million barrels of Iraq’s crude oil. It is located to the east of Qeshm Island, Iran. The AIS is offline, but TankerTrackers reported it via a public post on Saturday. Iran threatened that the U.S. action would not go unanswered after the ship, operating under Suez Rajan, was taken as part of a sanctions enforcement operation.

The St. Nikolas tanker was on its way to Iranian ports, based on a navy statement cited by Fars news agency on Thursday. The seizure of St. Nikolas comes amid weeks of attacks on Red Sea shipping channels by Houthi fighters in Yemen, who Iran reportedly backs.

Reference: MarineLink

Seized Marshall Island’s Flagged Tanker Located East Of Iran’s Qeshm Island appeared first on Marine Insight – The Maritime Industry Guide

Source: Maritime Shipping News