The captain of the Adrian Darya 1 is reported to have been offered cash inducements to sail the VLCC to a country that would impound the vessel on behalf of the US.
Akhilesh Kumar is said to have received the offer in an e-mail from Brian Hook, the US Representative for Iran, according to the Financial Times (FT).
The UK business newspaper said the offer was made just four days before the US imposed sanctions on the Iranian tanker and its captain.
The approach to Kumar is reportedly not an isolated case, according the FT, with a dozen captains said to have been approached in recent months.
“Iran knows that the success of our pressure campaign depends on vigorous enforcement of oil sanctions,” Hook told the FT.
Having failed at piracy, the US resorts to outright blackmail
Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
“We have collapsed Iran’s oil exports in a short period of time. We are working very closely with the maritime community to disrupt and deter illicit oil exports.”
Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter to respond to the FT’s allegations tweeting: “Having failed at piracy, the US resorts to outright blackmail — deliver us Iran’s oil and receive several million dollars or be sanctioned yourself.”
Previously known as Grace 1, the vessel was seized in July by British Royal Marines and held in Gibraltar for six weeks, on suspicion it was delivering oil to Syria.
Gibraltar released the ship – despite US protests – after it said it had received written assurances from Iran that the vessel would not head for countries under European Union sanctions. Tehran later denied it had made any promises.
The Adrian Darya 1 has since been slow-steaming and zig-zagging in the Eastern Mediterranean. It changed its AIS destination at least three times – first to the Greek port of Kalamata, then to the Turkish port of Mersin, then to no destination and then to Iskenderun.
It was last reported to be awaiting orders, off Lebanon, near the Syrian border, before its AIS was deactivated.
It has become the world’s most tracked ship in the process, with journalists, government agencies, charterers and market participants speculating on its final destination.
Several watchers expect the Adrian Darya 1 to seek to find a way to sneak into Syria or to reload part of its cargo to smaller, Iranian-controlled tankers that can access the Suez Canal.
US secretary of state Mike Pompeo had previously said on Twitter that: “We have reliable information that the tanker is underway and headed to Tartus, Syria. I hope it changes course,”
The Adrian Darya 1’s fate will likely have a bearing on the UK-flagged 50,000-dwt tanker Stena Impero (built 2018), which Iran seized on 19 July in an apparent reprisal for the arrest of the Grace 1 in Gibraltar.
The Stena Impero is still in Bandar Abbas, but Iran has recently indicated thjat it will release seven of the ship’s crew.
