Iran has released the crude oil cargo of the St Nikolas (IMO 9524475), a 159,000 dwt oil tanker which it seized earlier this year (IMN, January 12th 2024) when the vessel was en route to Turkiye with 1m barrels of Iraqi crude oil.
The St Nikolas was formerly known as the Suez Rajan and had spent some time in the USA after being seized. In August 2023 the Iranian cargo was offloaded from the vessel Suez Rajan near Houston, Texas. Following this, the Suez Rajan renamed as St Nikolas and returned to the Middle East.
The oil cargo has undergone a ship-to-ship transfer from to T.Semahat (IMO 9804148), a Turkiye-flagged oil tanker. The transfer of oil was conducted near Iran’s Larak Island between 23rd and 25th July.
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 was now destined for the refinery and scheduled to arrive in September.
2011-built, Marshall Islands-flagged, 81,282 gt St Nikolas is owned by St Nikolas Maritime Ltd care of manager Empire Navigation Inc of Athens, Greece.
2017-built, Turkiye-flagged, 81,962 gt T.Semahat is owned by Bakirkoy Tankercilik as care of manager Ditas Deniz Isletmeciligi of Istanbul, Turkiye. It is entered with Skuld (Skuld Copenhagen) on behalf of Ditaz Deniz. As of July 27th the vessel was reported as underway to Aliaga, ETA September 5th.