US plans to seize tanker it thinks came from Iran: Report
Around 2 million barrels of oil on board a Liberian-flagged tanker sailing to the US is bound to be seized, because authorities think it is Iranian oil, Bloomberg reports.
A seizure order issued by the US Department of Justice came before Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as US president on Jan. 20, the financial news provider cited unidentified “people familiar with the matter” as saying.
It came after the Achilleas’ Greek owner, Capital Ship Management Corp., alerted US authorities to the possibility it had "unknowingly" taken on Iranian crude.
The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) reportedly received its oil at the United Arab Emirates port of Fujairah in November.
The US has tried to seize Iranian petroleum before, but all shipments have made it to their destinations after Tehran’s stern warnings of retaliation.
Last year, Washington claimed to have intercepted vessels it said were carrying gasoline from the Islamic Republic to Venezuela, but Iranian officials roundly rejected the allegation.
Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zanganeh said at the time that the United States was seeking to contrive a victory for itself, and that neither did the ships nor the cargo belong to Iran.
