End game in sight as controversial Iranian VLCC prepares to head home

Having taken five months to deliver its cargo of crude, the end game is finally in sight for the Iranian VLCC Adrian Darya 1, with the tanker now in Syrian waters and its oil in the process of being offloaded having found a buyer.

The ship has been carrying the same cargo since April on a circuitous route that has seen it pass the Cape of Good Hope, enter the Mediterranean where it was detained on July 4 over claims it was bound for sanctions-hit Syria.

With the controversial ship expected to head through the Suez and back home to Iran, authorities in Tehran have said over the weekend that the remaining crew on the Stena Impero, a product tanker detained since July 19 in retaliation for its own VLCC being taken in Gibraltar earlier, could be freed in the coming days.

In related news, the Iranian coast guard revealed on Saturday it had arrested a tug, Al Buraq 1, and its 12 Filipino crew in the east of the Strait of Hormuz over alleged fuel smuggling, the third vessel to be detained on such charges in the past two months. The tug is now moored at Qeshm port, near Bandar Abbas.