Iran Says It Seized Oil Tanker Listed by US as Sanctions Violator

Iranian state media posted a video on Friday that appeared to indicate Iran’s Navy seizing an oil tanker recognized as the Ocean Koi.

The vessel was “exploiting the conditions in the region to harm and disrupt oil exports and the interests of the Iranian nation,” the state information company IRNA stated. The tanker, carrying Iranian oil, was escorted to Iran’s southern coast. Shipping analysts stated that the tanker was Chinese-owned.

On Feb. 25 the US Treasury Department recognized the vessel as a part of a shadow fleet of ships that it stated Iran utilized in violation of US sanctions.

TankerTrackers, a maritime knowledge firm, stated Friday that the Chinese-owned tanker has been named the Jin Li since Nov. 30 and that it has transported Iranian hydrocarbons at the least 16 instances since 2021. Half of the ship’s loadings had been at Iranian ports and the opposite half consisted of ship-to-ship oil transfers, the corporate stated.

“Given the vessel’s established history within the Iranian trade ecosystem, this seizure appears to be a performative move likely intended to project regional authority or obscure deeper cooperation,” in keeping with Windward AI, a maritime monitoring firm.

There are some 1,600 ships stranded within the Persian Gulf following Iran’s efficient closure of the Strait of Hormuz after the nation was attacked on Feb. 28 by the United States and Israel. A US blockade, which started final month, has additionally prevented the variety of ships in a position to make it out into the Gulf of Oman. Ships which have come by have taken steps such as turning off their monitoring gadgets to evade detection. It’s additionally not unusual for ships to alter their names.

Before the conflict, about 130 vessels handed by the strait every day.