Iran captured a second oil tanker in a week in Gulf seas on Wednesday, according to the US Navy, the latest in a string of seizures or attacks on commercial vessels in Gulf waters since 2019.
The Panama-flagged oil tanker Niovi was taken by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) around 6:20 a.m. (0220 GMT) while sailing through the tight Strait of Hormuz, according to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.
Tehran’s prosecutor announced the oil ship was seized on a legal order following a complaint by a plaintiff, according to the judiciary’s Mizan news agency. There were no other details supplied.
The incident comes after Iran captured the Advantage Sweet, a Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker, in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday. According to the Marshall Islands flag registry, the ship is being seized by Iranian authorities in Bandar Abbas.
Ambrey, a maritime security service, believes Iran seized the Advantage Sweet in response to the United States’ recent seizure of an oil cargo onboard the Marshall Islands tanker Suez Rajan via court order.
The Niovi oil tanker was traveling from Dubai to the UAE’s Fujairah port when it was forced to change course by IRGCN boats and enter Iranian territorial waters, according to the Navy.
The Niovi last reported its position at 0231 GMT on Wednesday off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz with Fujairah as its destination, Refinitiv ship tracking data showed.
According to the International Maritime Organization shipping database,, the Niovi’s owner is Grand Financing Co, and the ship is managed by Greece-based Smart Tankers, which did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
About a fifth of the world’s crude oil and oil products passes through the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow choke point between Iran and Oman, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa.
