Tankers seized by Iran and the US in what are believed to be tit-for-tat detentions have re-emerged in locations that put them on their expected route.
The satellite tracking signal from Empire Navigation’s 159,000-dwt tanker Suez Rajan (built 2011) resumed broadcasting on Tuesday off South Africa’s west coast, according to data from VesselsValue.
The tanker, which is bareboat chartered to the Greek company and owned by an equipment finance unit of Oaktree Capital Management, is on a northwesterly course that is consistent with a voyage to the US, though it has no destination listed.
Several media outlets have reported that the vessel was seized by US authorities after it departed a Singapore anchorage where it had spent more than a year amid a controversy over its crude cargo, which is believed to be of Iranian origin.
Asked by TradeWinds whether the ship had been seized, US Justice Department spokeswoman Nicole Navas Oxman declined to comment.
Meanwhile, an Advantage Tankers spokesperson told Bloomberg that the 159,000-dwt suezmax tanker Advantage Sweet (built 2012) is being held at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas.
The tanker port was widely expected to be its destination after Iran’s navy boarded the suezmax and detained it in the Gulf of Oman.
“The crew are okay and safe,” the spokesperson told the newswire.
The ship, controlled by Switzerland-based Advantage, was on charter to Chevron and carrying Kuwaiti crude to Houston when it was boarded. It has not broadcast an AIS signal since the incident on Thursday.
Though Iranian authorities have blamed a collision with a fishing vessel for the detention, it was widely seen as retaliation for the Suez Rajan seizure.
