Iran has said the US seizure of a crude oil cargo aboard an Evangelos Marinakis-linked VLCC this month is an “act of piracy”.
Washington claims the crude on the 298,000-dwt Achilleas (built 2010) ship was exported covertly by Tehran to avoid US trade sanctions.
“The shipment belongs to the private sector,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters in Tehran on Monday.
“It is very unfortunate that such an act of piracy is happening under the new US administration ... a solution should be found to stop such acts of piracy by anyone for any reason,” Khatibzadeh added.
The announcement indicates that tensions between Washington and Iran show little sign of easing under Joe Biden’s presidency.
Origin allegations
The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed earlier this month, alleging Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps disguised the oil’s origin and made it seem as if it came from Iraq.
The DOJ ordered the Capital Ship Management VLCC to sail to the US before Biden succeeded Donald Trump as US president on 20 January.
The Achilleas is anchored about 54 nautical miles (100 km) off the Texas coastline near Houston, according to tanker-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.
TradeWinds reported last week that the US will look to sell the oil aboard the vessel after a US district judge granted a motion filed by the government.
The court complaint alleged that the oil carried by the VLCC was originally from Iran’s Sirri Island and Kharg Island terminals.
The confiscation of the oil was the second time in 12 months that US authorities seized what they believed to be sanction-busting cargoes.
Last summer, it seized 1.16m barrels of gasoline aboard four MR tankers before selling it in aid of charity.
The gasoline was aboard four ships — the 37,400-dwt Bella and 37,300-dwt Luna (both built 2000), 47,400-dwt Bering (built 1998) and 46,200-dwt Pandi (built 1996) — when the cargo seizure was approved by a US district court in August.
A US official confirmed last week that Washington had sold more than 1m barrels of Iranian fuel seized under its sanctions programme last year.
