Satellite imagery has located the seized MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company-chartered and operated container ship MSC Aries off Iran with three other hijacked overseas vessels.
And TankerTrackers, which worked on the image with Planet Labs, warned that the Iranian government could hold the Zodiac Maritime-affiliated vessel for a long period.
TankerTrackers said it was able to locate the 15,000-teu MSC Aries (built 2020), which is also operated and managed by MSC, in the Hormozgan archipelago, between the islands of Qeshm and Hormuz.
The vessel was the latest to be caught up in a series of tit-for-tat seizures linked either to US actions over Iranian oil or the wider Middle East tensions centred on the Gaza war.
“The vessel is being held not too far away from the three tankers, which Iran also hijacked last year,” TankerTrackers said.
These are Advantage Tankers’ 158,500-dwt suezmax Advantage Sweet (built 2012), the Altomare-owned 309,000-dwt VLCC Niovi (built 2005) and Empire Navigation’s 159,000-dwt suezmax St Nikolas (built 2011).
“All three are being held in the Khuran Straits, and Iran has already seized the Kuwaiti oil on board the Advantage Sweet a few days ago with the help of their VLCC super-tanker Navarz,” the company added.
“Iran chose to do this as compensation for sanctions,” TankerTrackers said.
The Niovi was in ballast and the St Nikolas was still laden with 1m barrels of Iraqi oil.
“Iran is in this for the long haul,” Samir Madani, co-founder of TankerTrackers, told CNBC.
Risks assessed
Madani said: “They will hold the MSC Aries for a long period. Iran has been holding some tankers for about a year, if not longer now,” he said.
Iran does, however, tend to release seafarers from these vessels.
Markets are continuing to assess the effects of any further escalation of military action involving Iran and Israel.
Any Iranian blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would send oil prices spiralling upwards, but the risk is low as the strait has never been closed before despite Iranian threats, JP Morgan said.
“They can’t close the Strait of Hormuz, but they can do significant damage to energy infrastructure, to vessels in the region,” RBC’s head of global commodity strategy and Middle East and North Africa research, Helima Croft, told CNBC.
“While I can’t imagine Iran would want to fill up their anchorage with vessels, they want to keep the waters in a constant state of chaos,” Madani said.
A closure, however, would “shoot themselves in the foot since their biggest client is China”, he added.
