On 5th July, U.S. forces prevented two attempted commercial tanker seizures by the Iranian Navy after the Iranians had opened fire in one of the incidents near the coast of Oman.
In particular, the vessel and its crew were safe following the incident in waters between Iran and Oman off the coast of Omani capital Muscat on Wednesday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), part of the Royal Navy, said.
As explained, the UKMTO described the incident as an “interaction with national maritime forces”, without specifying which country the forces belonged to.
According to Ambrey, the ship was a Bahamas-flagged oil tanker, which was Greek-owned and U.S.-managed.
Refintiv ship tacking data shows the Richmond Voyager, a very large crude carrier managed by Chevron, matching the position and description provided by UKMTO and Ambrey. It had previously docked in Ras Tannoura in eastern Saudi Arabia.
Iran seized two oil tankers in a week just over a month ago,
..the U.S. Navy said.
On July 5, U.S. forces prevented two attempted commercial tanker seizures by the Iranian Navy after the Iranians had opened fire in one of the incidents near the coast of Oman. Both of these incidents occurred in international waters. Read more ⬇️ https://t.co/HJNTzKtsXv pic.twitter.com/rvzDcATCQq
— U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet (@US5thFleet) July 5, 2023
Furthermore, on May 3 at approximately 6:20 a.m. local time, Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was seized by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) while transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
