Iranian navy seizes 'stolen' tanker in Gulf of Oman hijacking
Quantum Commodity Intelligence – An alert issued by the UK Marine Trade Operations (UKMTO) agency Thursday, advising shipping to proceed with caution around the northeast coast of Oman, took an unusual twist with the vessel in question tuning out to be a ship that Iran has accused the US of 'stealing'.
The Iranian navy seized the St Nikolas in the early hours of Thursday around 50 nautical miles off the coast of Oman, with the initial UKMTO bulletin saying that it was unable to make further contact with the vessel after hearing "unknown voices" over the ship's communication channels.
However, as details emerged, the oil tanker was identified as the vessel previously named the Suez Rajan, which was at the centre of a dispute between the US and Iran after the vessel was seized by US authorities in 2023 on suspicion of shipping sanctioned Iranian oil to China.
Iranian state media issued a statement Thursday saying that the tanker "was stolen by the US and changed its name", while tracking data later showed the vessel was likely to be heading for Iran.
As the Suez Rajan, the ship was idled in the South China Sea for many months before being moved to the US Gulf, where federal prosecutors attempted to auction off 800,000 barrels of crude. Oil companies at the time were said to be reluctant to bid, fearing reprisals from Iran.
Despite the circumstances surrounding the latest hijacking, it was still enough to spook markets, with Brent crude prices rising around 2% as details emerged.
The Gulf of Oman is a hugely busy shipping route that connects to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow body of water linking the Indian Ocean to the Middle East Gulf.
While the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman have been shipping flashpoints in recent years, there have been no reported incidents since the escalation of the Israel-Hamas conflict, which has drawn in Houthi militants based in Yemen.
Commercial shipping in the Red Sea, on the other side of the Arabian peninsula, has been heavily targeted by Houthis in recent weeks, but any threat to the Strait of Hormuz or the surrounding area is seen as a much more serious issue for energy supplies.
Vulnerability
Analysts have warned that the Israel-Hamas war has heightened the vulnerability of shipping routes in the region, with the Middle East hosting three major chokepoints in the Strait of Hormuz, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, and the Suez Canal/Sumed pipeline.
Last week, Goldman Sachs' head of energy research, Daan Struyven, told CNBC that any threat to the Strait of Hormuz has far greater implications than the current Red Sea shipping disruptions.
"The Red Sea is a transit route... a prolonged disruption there, oil can be three or four dollars higher. However, if you have a disruption in the Strait of Hormuz for a month, [crudel] prices would rise by 20% and could even eventually double if the disruption there lasted for longer," he said.
In late December, the US Department of Defense said that a chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean was hit by a drone launched from Iran. The CHEM PLUTO was struck 200 nautical miles from the coast of India by "a one-way attack drone fired from Iran," the US Pentagon said at the time.
