January 8th, 20201The families of the disaster have told Splash about the massive cover-up they believe has taken place in one of the worst shipping accidents of the past decade, and they are adamant many survived the inferno and have since been jailed. The fully laden National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) suezmax tanker collided with the Chinese...
January 3rd, 20200Merchant shipping heading through Middle Eastern waters has been placed back on high alert over fears Iran may retaliate to American drone strikes earlier today that killed a top Iranian general. Iran's most powerful military commander, General Qasem Soleimani, was killed by a US air strike in Iraq at around 1am this...
December 31st, 20190Iran has detained a tanker allegedly carrying smuggled fuel near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. According to reports by Iranian state-run Islamic Republic News Agency, the tanker carrying 1.3m liters of smuggled fuel was intercepted near Abu Musa island. Sixteen Malaysian crew members onboard the unidentified vessel were...
December 18th, 20193With the second anniversary of the disaster three weeks away, the family members of the victims of one of the worst tanker accidents of the decade have headed to America and filed a lawsuit against the ship's owner, National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) and two Iranian government officials in a district court in Washington DC, alleging...
October 14th, 20190One in five VLCCs in operation today face restrictions from US sanctions, according to data from Braemar ACM. Research carried out by the shipbroking house also shows that just over a sixth of the world’s suezmax fleet and 10% of the aframax/LR2 fleet face similar trading restrictions from Washington, something that has sparked the...
October 14th, 20190The , an Iranian suezmax attacked on Friday morning in the Red Sea off Jeddah, has left a trail of oil as it sailed more than 500 miles over the weekend towards Eritrea before turning around and is now likely headed back to Iran where it will require significant repairs. Iranian authorities are saying the ship was attacked by two...
October 11th, 20190A fully laden Iranian suezmax belonging to NITC has been hit by two explosions in the Red Sea, while en route to Syria, with vast quantities of crude gushing from its breached hull. The 1999-built is the third Iranian ship to run into trouble in the area in the last six months with two other tankers breaking down near Saudi...
September 27th, 20190Seventy days since it was detained, the has finally left Bandar Abbas port today, with AIS tracking suggesting the Stena Bulk tanker is headed to Port Rashid in the United Arab Emirates, a half-day’s steaming away. The Stena Bulk vessel was detained by Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19 for alleged...
September 24th, 20194Detained by Iran since July 19 the is finally on the move although the shipowner, Stena Bulk, has not yet heard officially from local authorities, nor the ship’s master, whether or not the vessel is now free to depart Iranian waters. Satellite images from this morning show the ship has upped anchor from Bandar Abbas, however a...
September 9th, 20197Having taken five months to deliver its cargo of crude, the end game is finally in sight for the Iranian VLCC , with the tanker now in Syrian waters and its oil in the process of being offloaded having found a buyer. The ship has been carrying the same cargo since April on a circuitous route that has seen it pass the Cape of Good...
