Tag: US

Gard advises all vessels operating in the Gulf of Oman, Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf region to be highly alerted, operate with a heightened level of security and follow relevant guidance, as the tension in the area keep increasing.

Following the Stena Impero seizure from Iran, the UK called for a European-led naval mission in the Strait of Hormuz, to ensure safe navigation. After a meeting of COBR, Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, presented the government's plan on how to keep the area safe. 

The US is taking further action under maximum economic pressure campaign against the Iranian regime by imposing sanctions on a Chinese firm and its chief executive for knowingly purchasing or acquiring oil from Iran, violating US sanctions. The transaction took place after the expiration of China’s Significant Reduction Exception (SRE) on May 2, 2019, and was not covered by that SRE.

After the detention by Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces of the UK-flagged Stena Impero on 19 July and the latest reported actions which have seen the 23 person crew taken off the ship for 'questioning', Human Rights at Sea reinstated its call for widely-accepted UN guidance, describing the basic human rights protections for crew during the deprivation of their liberty in such cases.

After the UK-flagged ship Stena Impero, diverted from its original course in the Strait of Hormuz, the International Chamber of Shipping's (ICS) Secretary General, Guy Platten, stated that he is extremely concerned about this latest development, particularly in respect of the safety of seafarers.

On Friday, July 19, Iranian authorities seized Stena Impero, a British-flagged, Swedish-owned oil tanker, while sailing through the Strait of Hormuz. The incident spiked the tensions in the area, as the UK condemned this act as 'hostile', denying Tehran's argument that it seized the vessel because it was involved in an accident.

Vietnam accused a Chinese oil survey vessel and its escorts of breaching its sovereignty and demanded China to remove the vessels from Vietnamese waters. The two countries are engaged in a dispute regarding the possible energy-rich of waters in the South China Sea for years.

The US Navy took down an Iranian drone on July 18, after it refused to back down, as President Donald Trump informed. Namely, the USS Boxer destroyed the drone over the Strait of Hormuz, after the drone approached the ship within 1,000 yards. However, Iran stated that it does know about losing a drone. In fact, BBC reports that Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi suggested the US may have downed its own drone by mistake.

The US Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt announced that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will offer 77.8 million acres for a region-wide lease sale scheduled for August 21, 2019. The sale would include all available unleased areas in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The amount of outbound cargoes to the US is expected to be volatile for this year as the US-China trade dispute continue. Namely, container port business Hutchison Port Holdings Trust (HPH Trust) is expected to announce its second quarter results ended June 30, 2019, after the market closes, according to IG Bank.