Iranian Navy footage reveals masked commandos descending on deck of tanker [Screen grab from YouTube]
Iranian Navy footage has appeared on YouTube displaying yesterday’s seizure of the Marshall Islands flagged tanker Advantage Sweet whereas transiting worldwide waters within the Gulf of Oman.
While Iranian state-controlled media shops say that the tanker was detained “after it collided with an Iranian boat and attempted to flee the scene,” there has as but been so substantiation of this of this and hypothesis is that the ship could also be being held as a bargaining chip.
Meantime, a number of extra particulars of the vessel are rising. While the Equasis knowledge base reveals the 2012-built, 159,058 dwt crude oil tanker as being operated by Istanbul-headquartered Genel Denizcilik Nakliyati AS, it seems on the fleet record of Advantage Tankers which describes itself as a holding firm for 18 single-purpose vessel owing entities.
The Washington Post stories Advantage Tankers as saying that each one Advantage Sweet’s 24 crew members are Indians and that the ship was “being escorted by the Iranian navy to a port on the basis of an international dispute.”
“The safety and welfare of our valued crew members is our No. 1 priority,” the agency mentioned. “Similar experiences show that crew members of vessels taken under such circumstances are in no danger.”
According to the IMO knowledge base, the seized tanker’s precise proprietor is Chinese ship leasing firm SPDB Financial Leasing.
Reuters reported Refinitiv ship monitoring knowledge as displaying that the vessel was certain for Houston beneath constitution to Chevron and quoted a Chevron spokesperson as saying the corporate a “in contact with the vessel operator with the hope of resolving this situation as soon as possible.”
