Following seizure of the oil tanker ‘Grace 1’ on 27 June in Gibraltar, within European territorial waters, an oil tanker run by oil major BP is being kept inside the Persian Gulf, off Saudi Arabia, in fear it could be seized by Iran for retaliation.
The ‘British Heritage’, with carrying capacity of 1 million barrels of crude oil, was sailing toward Iraq’s Basrah oil terminal, in the south part of the country, when it made a sudden u-turn on 6 July. AIS data show the ship is now off Saudi Arabia’s coast.
According to reports by a person with knowledge of the matter at Bloomberg, the major concern of BP is that the vessel could become a target if Iran seeks to retaliate for the seizure of the Grace 1.
The UK-flagged ship had been chartered by Royal Dutch Shell Plc to transport crude from Basrah to northwest Europe. It didn’t collect that cargo and the booking was canceled.
Iran’s deputy foreign minister said on Sunday he considered the seizure by Gibraltar to be an act of piracy, while a former leader of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the Islamic Republic should take a British tanker in response.
British Royal Marines captured the Grace 1 in Gibraltar on June 27, after being accused of bringing oil to Syria, thus breaching EU sanctions. This was considered a dramatic step that could escalate tensions between the West and Iran.
An ongoing tension between the West and Middle East seems to be further escalating in light of two subsequent attacks against oil tankers in Persian Gulf and Arabian sea in May and June.
The situation has brought major insurance costs for oil tanker owners, who load cargoes from the world’s largest crude-export region.
