Oil Tankers

A Greek-flagged oil tanker was damaged in a suspected drone attack in the Black Sea while approaching the Russian port of Novorossiysk, authorities said. Greece's shipping ministry said the attack occurred early Saturday, causing material damage, but the 24 crew members were unharmed and the vessel's seaworthiness was not under threat. The Maran Homer, chartered by US oil giant Chevron, was travelling from Thessaloniki in northern Greece to the Black Sea port and was due to sail on to Istanbul. It was struck by a missile or drone before picking up Kazakh oil, according to Greek government officials and the vessel's Greek operating company. Greek Maritime Affairs Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Athens would lodge a "strong complaint" with the country deemed responsible, without giving further details. He later identified Ukraine as carrying out frequent attacks in the Black Sea. "I consider the targeting of vessels flying the Greek flag - as well as those with Greek sailors and Gre

An India-flagged oil tanker moved out from the east of the Strait of Hormuz carrying gasoline bound for Africa, an Indian government official said on Friday

The attack on US-owned crude oil tanker Safesea Vishnu that killed an Indian crew member appears to have been "deliberate and calculated", the maritime company's chief has said. Chairman of maritime company Safesea Group SV Anchan emphasised that the strike must serve as a wake-up call for governments that commercial shipping lanes cannot become battle zones and the lives of seafarers must never be treated as collateral damage. "The devastating attack on MT Safesea Vishnu is a stark reminder that the world's merchant seafarers are increasingly being exposed to the dangers of geopolitical conflict," Anchan told PTI in a statement Thursday. On March 11, the Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Vishnu was attacked off Khor Al Zubair port near Basra, Iraq by an Iranian "suicide" boat. Tragically, in the attack, an Indian crew member, who was one of the top seafarers on the vessel, was killed. "From our initial assessment after speaking to the surviving crew members, the attack appears to

Before the war, about 80 oil and gas tankers crossed the strait daily, moving roughly 20 million barrels; Now, shipping has plunged, with barely one or two vessels able to pass each day

Iraq's State Organization for Marketing of Oil, or SOMO, named the tankers as Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Vishnu and Malta-flagged Zefyros

Trump has floated deploying Navy escorts for tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, but analysts say geography, Iranian military threats and limited naval resources pose challenges

The seizures and heightened surveillance follow an improvement in US-India relations

US forces in the Caribbean Sea have seized another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says has ties to Venezuela, part of a broader US effort to take control of the South American country's oil. The US Coast Guard boarded the tanker, named Veronica, early Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on social media. The ship had previously passed through Venezuelan waters and was operating in defiance of President Donald Trump's "established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean, she said. US Southern Command said Marines and sailors launched from the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford to take part in the operation alongside a Coast Guard tactical team, which Noem said conducted the boarding as in previous raids. The military said the ship was seized without incident. Several US government social media accounts posted brief videos that appeared to show various parts of the ship's capture. Black-and-white footage showed at least four helicopte

An old, rusting oil tanker drifting across the Atlantic almost triggered a confrontation between the United States and Russia. The tanker Bella 1, later renamed Marinera, was part of a “shadow fleet”

In order to avoid tracking, many of these ships turn off their automatic identification system, disappearing from standard maritime monitoring

Russia has strongly condemned the US seizure of an oil tanker, heralding a new chill in relations between Moscow and Washington that could spread to other areas and affect President Donald Trump's efforts to persuade Russia to end its nearly four-year war in Ukraine. The seizure Wednesday of the Russian-flagged tanker in the North Atlantic "can only lead to a further escalation of military and political tensions in the Euro-Atlantic region, as well as a visible lowering of the threshold for the use of force' against peaceful shipping, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. Russian President Vladimir Putin hasn't yet commented on the seizure of the tanker and has remained silent about the US capture of Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro, which his diplomats have denounced as a blatant act of aggression. But while the Russian president has avoided any criticism of Trump, the seizure of the tanker by the US military represents a new challenge for the Kremlin. Hawkish commentators in Moscow .

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to President Donald Trump after the UK armed forces provided enabling support for the American seizure of a Russian-flagged oil tanker, stopped in the North Atlantic by the US Coast Guard. They (Starmer and Trump) discussed the joint operation to intercept the Bella 1' as part of shared efforts to crack down on sanctions busting, recent progress on Ukraine and the US operation in Venezuela, a Downing Street statement said of the Wednesday evening call. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the UK responded to the US request for assistance with its operation by deploying Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance aircraft and Royal Navy support ship RFA Tideforce'. Defence Secretary John Healey said Britain's support for the pre-planned action was in full compliance with international law and reiterated that the UK-US defence and security relationship is the deepest in the world". Marinera', a Venezuelan-linked tanker previously known as Bella 1', was

As part of Trump's pressure campaign, US forces have launched strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats that have killed more than 100 people, and seized two oil tankers

From tribunal capacity and procedural certainty to tanker seizures that could hit India's economy, today's Best of BS Opinion also looks at Budget-impact laws, AI agents, and a book on sanctions

Vessels are spending more time at sea transporting cargo, contributing to the spike, and several shipping executives expect tightness in the broader market to continue

Two tankers were struck and caught fire in the Black Sea, Turkish authorities reported, prompting rescue operations. Crew members on board both vessels were reported to be safe. The OpenSanctions database, which tracks people or organisations involved in sanctions evasion, described the vessels as shadow fleet or vessels used to evade sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Russia. Turkey's Directorate General of Maritime Affairs said the first tanker, the Gambian-flagged Kairos, caught fire in the Black Sea, approximately 45 km off the coast of Turkey's Kocaeli province. It blamed on the fire on an external impact, without providing details. The Kairos was sailing empty toward Russia's Novorossiysk port, it said. Within the hour, the maritime authority reported that a second tanker, Virat, was struck while sailing in the Black Sea about 35 nautical miles off the Turkish coast. It did not provide further details. Rescue teams were dispatched to the scene to pro

The oil market has zeroed in on Russia's export patterns, as well as Indian purchasing, after the US sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil PJSC on October 22

Yemen's Houthi rebels said Monday they launched a missile at an oil tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea, potentially renewing their attacks targeting shipping through the crucial global waterway. Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree claimed responsibility for the launch in a prerecorded message aired on al-Masirah, a Houthi-controlled satellite news channel. He alleged the vessel, the Scarlet Ray, had ties to Israel. The ship's owners could not be immediately reached. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre, which monitors Mideast shipping, earlier reported a ship heard a splash and a bang off its side near Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. From November 2023 to December 2024, the Houthis targeted more than 100 ships with missiles and drones over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. In their campaign so far, the Houthis have sank four vessels and killed at least eight mariners. The Iranian-backed Houthis stopped their attacks durin

Contract II, a decades-old tanker linked to Iran sanctions, was sold at a discount and dismantled in Alang, India, amid tighter enforcement and rising risks for ageing dark fleet vessels

Over recent months, more vessels have started switching off their transponders as they near waters off eastern Malaysia, a hotspot for the transfer of Iranian oil to China