St-Nikolas

Iran has released the 'St. Nikolas' without the cargo one million barrels of Iraqi crude oil. The seizure was in retaliation against the ship’s manager, the Empire Navigation, Greece. In 2023, the Empire Navigation helped the US authorities to seize the Iranian cargo aboard the vessel, formerly named 'Suez Rajan'. The US Court ordered the seizure of Iranian cargo from Suez Rajan. In August 2023, the Iranian cargo was offloaded from the vessel at the Texas coast. Following this, the tanker was renamed and returned to the Middle East. It was seized along with its cargo by Iran on Jan 11. The oil cargo has been transferred through ship-to-ship onto the 'T.'Semahat' (IMO: 9804148) near Larak Island between July 23 and 25 . Tupris, a Turkish refiner, stated that it had purchased the crude oil from SOMO, an Iraqi state oil company. The refiner also noted that the crude oil is now destined for the refinery and scheduled to arrive in September. The 'T.SEMAHAT was moored at Khor Fakkan Anchorage on July 26.

Iran has released the Filipino crew members of the 'St. Nikolas', which was seized in January with 145,000 tons of oil on board. The 18 seafarers people were only allowed leave after replacement staff had been arranged. A Greek crew member was released shortly afterwards. The Filipino crew were allowed to go home in groups from the end of January. The latter returned to Manila last week.

Iran has allowed a crew change from the captured 'St Nikolas', still held off Bandar Abbas. The vessel’s shipmanager, Greece-based Empire Navigation, confirmed in an email that 11 of the 17 remaining seafarers on board the tanker have been released. The 11 Filipino seafarers were due to return home to Manila starting on March 10. Nine of the crew arrived on that day, and two others were due to arrive on March 13. The remaining six seafarers were expected to also return as soon as their replacements arrive. The company expressed its sincere gratitude to our crew for their commendable behaviour and resilience during this trying period, our Manning Agent in Manila and the Department of Migrant Workers for their excellent cooperation. A replacement crew will be arriving at the vessel.