Seized suezmax heads to Iran

Empire Navigation’s St Nikolas suezmax is making its way to Iranian waters, having been seized by a team from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who abseiled onto the deck of the ship via helicopter yesterday morning.

The Greek owner has appealed to authorities in the US to help try and free the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker and its crew of a Greek and 18 Filipinos. 

The ship was carrying a cargo of Iraqi oil bound for Turkey when it was hijacked yesterday. 

In September last year, Empire Navigation admitted to violating US sanctions by shipping a cargo of Iranian crude oil aboard the same ship, then called Suez Rajan.

In April last year, Washington seized the tanker after it was caught transferring oil off Singapore. Following the arrest, Empire Navigation entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US, pledging to transport some 800,000 barrels of illicit Iranian crude to the US for seizure and forfeiture. Iran responded to the arrest by seizing two tankers in the Strait of Hormuz within the space of a week.

The Iranian navy’s “seizure of the oil tanker does not constitute hijacking; rather, it is a lawful undertaking sanctioned by a court order and corresponds to the theft of Iran’s very own oil,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations told The Associated Press yesterday in a statement.