Iran seizes oil tanker in Gulf of Oman with 18 crew members, including Indians onboard
Iranian news has reported the country has seized an oil tanker ship allegedly carrying six million litres of contraband diesel fuel in the Gulf of Oman. The 18 crew onboard include Indias, Sri Lankans, and Bangladeshi nationals.
IRANIAN authorities have seized an oil tanker allegedly ferrying contraband diesel fuel in the Gulf of Oman, with 18 crew members on board, including Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan nationals, as per an AFP report citing local media.
Iranian forces regularly announce the interception of ships it says are illegally transporting fuel in the Gulf, the local Fars news agency said. The report further noted that retail fuel prices in Iran are among the lowest in the world, making smuggling it to other countries particularly profitable.
Iran seizes oil tanker in Gulf of Oman: What we know
“An oil tanker carrying six million litres of contraband diesel fuel has been boarded off the coast of the Sea of Oman. The vessel had disabled all its navigation systems,” the Fars news agency said, quoting an official from the southern province of Hormozgan.
In November, Iran seized an oil tanker in Gulf waters for “carrying unauthorised cargo” and dismissed suggestions it was a retaliatory measure against another country.
Capture days after US' Venezuela tanker seizure
Notably, this development comes two days after the United States seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
According to Washington, the ship's captain was transporting oil from Venezuela and Iran. The US Treasury sanctioned Venezuela in 2022 for alleged ties to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah.
US reveals reason for seizing Skipper
According to a CNBC report citing information from Kpler, the large crude oil tanker seized by US forces off the coast of Venezuela on 10 December showed a “clear pattern” of spoofing its location to conceal its true whereabouts. It added that the Guyana-flagged tanker, identified as Skipper since 2022, has transported sanctioned oil from both Iran and Venezuela.
Over the past two years, Kpler data showed Skipper engaged in Automatic Identification System (AIS) spoofing on more than 80 days to conceal its real-time location, name, course, speed, classification, call sign, and registration number, according to the US Coast Guard.
Further, it added that while Skipper's actual location was hidden from the AIS network, Kpler data indicates that there were multiple ship-to-ship transfers of cargo during this period.
