The US Navy says a Swiss-controlled suezmax has been seized by Iranian forces in the Gulf of Oman.
The Middle East-based Fifth Fleet identified the vessel as the 159,100-dwt Advantage Sweet (built 2012) in a statement on Twitter.
The Marshall Islands-flag tanker was intercepted on Thursday afternoon in international waters amid wider tensions over Tehran’s nuclear programme.
Satellite tracking data showed the ship just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, at the time.
The tanker had loaded crude in Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston, Texas.
The Advantage Sweet issued a distress call at 13:15 local time as the seizure took place.
Advantage Tankers chief executive Tugrul Tokgoz told TradeWinds the ship had been seized by the Iranian Navy and was being taken to an Iranian port. The crew is safe, he added.
“The safety and welfare of our valued crew members is our number one priority. Similar experiences show that crew members of vessels taken under such circumstances are in no danger,” Advantage added in a statement released later.
The owner and its insurer representatives are in close touch with the appropriate authorities to obtain the release of the crew and vessel, it said.
Advantage Tankers bought the tanker from Viken Shipping of Norway last June for $41.25m. Advantage, which has a Turkish background, sold it on three months later to Chinese lease financier SPDB Financial Leasing.
Security company Ambrey said the ship was boarded via helicopter.
Contact was lost with the ship, which did not show any signs of conducting evasive manoeuvres prior to the incident.
Ambrey said the destination had been changed to Algoa Bay, South Africa before the boarding.
The Fifth Fleet clarified in a subsequent tweet that the seizure was conducted by the Iranian Navy, not the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy.
New game of tit-for-tat?
The US Navy denounced the move.
“Iran’s actions are contrary to international law and disruptive to regional security and stability,” it said. “Iran should immediately release the oil tanker.”
The Fifth Fleet said this was at least the fifth seizure of a commercial vessel by Tehran in the past two years.
“Iran’s continued harassment of vessels and interference with navigational rights in regional waters are a threat to maritime security and the global economy,” it added.
The reasons for Iran’s move is unclear.
According to Advantage, the seizure was carried out “on the basis of an international dispute”.
The government in Tehran is known to be seizing vessels in reprisal for moves by other governments elsewhere that it deems hostile.
According to Clarksons, the Advantage Sweet was carrying a load by US oil major Chevron.
Market observers speculated that the seizure might be in connection with recent moves by US authorities to lay their hands on another vessel that had been held for months in Singapore.
This could point to the 159,000-dwt Suez Rajan (built 2011). Victims of the 11 September 2001 terror attacks filed court applications in the US last year, seeking to seize the Iranian oil the ship was allegedly carrying.
Vessel trackers show the Suez Rajan as having left Singapore earlier this month, sailing in a westerly direction south of Madagascar towards the Atlantic.
Official Iranian media said a regular Iranian Navy Bayandor-class corvette seized the Advantage Sweet and directed it to Iranian coastal waters, alleging it had collided with an Iranian fishing boat in the “Persian Gulf”.
The collision allegedly resulted in two missing people and the injury of several others.
An Iranian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre apparently requested the tanker to assist.
International law
However, the reports claimed it “fled” and was seized for “violating international law”. According to another pro-Iranian news outlet, the country’s military understood the detained tanker was carrying US cargo.
Such reprisals fit the pattern of a row last year, when Iran freed two Greek tankers after months of talks.
The 157,400-dwt Delta Poseidon (built 2011) and 150,000-dwt Prudent Warrior (built 2017) had been held for six months in a tit-for-tat battle over the seizure of sanctioned oil.
The Delta Tankers and Polembros Shipping-managed vessels were released in exchange for an Iran-flag aframax held in Greece at the request of US authorities.
Both vessels were seized in late May as a bargaining chip to free the 115,400-dwt Lana (built 2003), which had been detained the previous month.
In coordinated releases, the Lana was escorted from its anchorage by the Greek Navy, while the Iranian military did the same with the other ships.
Dryad Global said Iran’s harassing of ships in the region follows an established pattern of behaviour in which Iran has targeted vessels as a result of disputes.
“It remains a realistic possibility that the vessel was either boarded as a show of force in response to the first transit of a US unmanned vessel through the Strait of Hormuz or the recent sanctioning by the US Department of Treasury of four senior officers of Iranian law enforcement connected to the IRGC,” the security company added.
