Navy Seizes Fleeing U.S.-Bound Oil Tanker

TEHRAN -- Iran seized a U.S.-bound oil tanker off Oman on Thursday, saying it had crashed into an Iranian vessel leaving two crew missing.
“Following the collision of an unknown ship with an Iranian vessel in the waters of the Persian Gulf two of the vessel’s crew went missing and several others were injured,” the Iranian navy said in a statement.
“The navy of the army, by court order, seized the violator ship, that was fleeing with the flag of the Marshall Islands, and directed it to the coastal waters of the Islamic republic of Iran,” it added.
The Iranian naval forces deployed to Chabahar port in southern Iran on a Center for International Maritime Security (CIMSEC) mission intercepted and seized the foreign ship in the Sea of Oman after having been contacted by the Maritime Surveillance and Rescue Center (MRCC).
The vessel was seized by Bayandor corvette of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy in compliance with a confiscation order issued by Iranian judicial authorities.
Iran and the United States have traded barbs over the incidents in the sensitive waters of the Persian Gulf that are a chokepoint for at least a third of the world’s seaborne oil.
The U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet identified the vessel as the Advantage Sweet. Satellite tracking data for the vessel from MarineTraffic.com showed it in the Gulf of Oman, just north of Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Thursday afternoon. It had just come from Kuwait and listed its destination as Houston.

The U.S. Navy initially said Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) seized the vessel, but an American naval aircraft later confirmed that Iran’s navy captured the ship, 5th Fleet spokesman Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins told The Associated Press.

The vessel’s manager, a Turkish firm called Advantage Tankers, issued a statement acknowledging the Advantage Sweet was “being escorted by the Iranian navy to a port on the basis of an international dispute.” All the ship’s 24 crew members are Indian.

Manifest information from data firm Refinitiv showed the Advantage Sweet carried Kuwaiti crude oil for American energy firm Chevron Corp. of San Ramon, California. Chevron said it was “aware of the situation.”

“We are in contact with the vessel operator with the hope of resolving this situation as soon as possible,” Chevron spokesperson Christine Dobbyn said in a statement.

In July 2019, the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps seized the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero in the same waterway for ramming a fishing boat, and released it two months later.

In 2021, Iran released a South Korean oil tanker it had held for months similar violations. Last May, Iran also seized two Greek oil tankers.

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Navy Seizes Fleeing U.S.-Bound Oil Tanker