Tanker boarded near Strait of Hormuz in latest Middle East shipping chaos

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) reported this morning that a number of “unauthorised” people wearing military-style black uniforms and masks boarded a ship in the Gulf of Oman, with TankerTrackers.com able to confirm the ship in question is the St Nikolas, formerly known as Suez Rajan.

“This is the vessel that was seized by the US government last year with its 1 million barrel cargo of Iranian oil; which was then delivered to Houston, Texas,” an client update from TankerTrackers.com stated.

The incident took place in waters between Oman and Iran just outside the Strait of Hormuz, with UK maritime security consultants Ambrey suggesting six people were involved in the boarding – the latest attack on merchant shipping in a period of extreme instability in the three months since Israel began its war against Hamas, which drew the Houthis from Yemen, backed by Iranian firepower and intelligence, into the conflict.

The 2011-built suezmax is owned by Greece’s Empire Navigation. In September last year, Empire Navigation admitted to violating US sanctions by shipping a cargo of Iranian crude oil aboard the same ship.

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 boarding of the St Nikolas follows a period of immense volatility for merchant shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden with a significant swathe of the merchant fleet opting to sail via the Cape of Good Hope over fears of being targeted by Iranian-backed Houthis, who have attacked a total of 26 ships since early November.

The United Nations Security Council on Wednesday demanded Yemen’s Houthis immediately end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and cautioned against escalating tensions while endorsing a US-led task force that has been defending vessels with further details emerging of the most severe attacks to date which occurred on Tuesday.

The UK’s defence minister, Grant Schapps, described the attacks on the HMS Diamond destroyer (pictured), which was involved in heavy action in the southern Red Sea on Tuesday as the largest attack on a Royal Navy warship in decades.