The Iranian government has said it had a court order in place to seize a Chevron VLCC approached and shot at by its forces off Oman on Wednesday.
The 319,000-dwt Richmond Voyager (built 2018) suffered damaged from bullets in the incident.
Iran claimed the ship had collided with an Iranian vessel and the navy had obtained the court order at the request of the Iranian shipowner, according to the Maritime Search and Rescue Centre of Iran’s Hormozgan Province, which was cited by the official IRINN news agency.
Iran said the Richmond Voyager’s alleged clash with an Iranian ship carrying seven crew members had injured five people and caused flooding on board.
The government added the VLCC had not stopped after the incident.
In recent months, Iran has made similar claims about accidents when seizing tankers linked to the US in apparent retaliation for the detention of the 159,000-dwt tanker Suez Rajan (built 2011) on the suspicion it was carrying crude of Iranian origin.
It emerged later on Wednesday that a second tanker had been approached by Iranian forces before the Richmond Voyager.
The US Naval Forces Central Command said the 37,300-dwt TRF Moss (built 2016) had been targeted.
Shipping databases show the Marshall Islands-flagged ship is owned by the US-based Transportation Recovery Fund and managed by Oslo-based TRF Ship Management.
Formerly controlled by US investor Wilbur Ross before he became US Commerce Secretary, Transportation Recovery Fund is linked to his former WL Ross & Co, which Invesco now controls.
Chevron said its crew was safe and the Richmond Voyager was operating normally.
As the VLCC headed from Ras Tanura in Saudi Arabia to Singapore, the US received a distress call from the Bahamas-flagged ship while it was off the coast of Muscat in the Arabian Sea.
