Tupras said in a statement that radio communication with the Greek-owned and Tupras-chartered vessel was cut off at around 6:30 a.m. Istanbul time Thursday off the coast of Oman, Al-Monitor reported.
The tanker is carrying 140 metric tons of crude oil Tupras purchased from Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO and was en route to Turkey’s western port of Aliaga from Basra in Iraq, the statement added.
The Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has announced the seizure of an American oil tanker with a court order in the Sea of Oman on Thursday.
Following the violation of the Suez Rajan in April and the theft of Iranian oil by the United States, the oil tanker renamed St Nicholas was seized in retaliation this morning by the court order and the approval of the Ports and Shipping Organization by the strategic Navy of the Islamic Republic of Iran Army and transferred to Iranian ports.
Last August, the US Navy unloaded a tanker of stolen Iranian oil worth around $56 million off the Texas port, despite warnings from Iran and after American oil firms had resisted the temptation of touching the 800,000-barrel tanker for fear of Iranian retaliation in the Persian Gulf waters.
The Marshall Islands-flagged Suez Rajan tanker carrying Iranian oil was illegally seized by Washington in April 2023 under the guise of “a sanctions-enforcement operation” and guided toward the Texas port.
It came days after a group of US senators and House representatives, at the behest of the Israeli lobby in Washington, began mounting pressure on the Joe Biden administration to unload the tanker, without considering its possible repercussions.
MP/PR
