Pirates have attacked the Greek-owned tanker ST NIKOLAS off Oman on Thursday.
The British firm Ambrey – Global Maritime Risk Management, said that the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker was bound for the Iranian port Bandar-e Jask when it was boarded by four or five gunmen off the coast of Oman.
More specifically, the private security firm Ambrey said that “six military men” boarded the ship, which it identified as the oil tanker ST NIKOLAS. It said that the men had covered the surveillance cameras as they boarded.
The vessel belongs, according to the Equasis shipping data platform, to Empire Navigation.
The Shipping Ministry said that there is one Greek, a trainee captain, among the crew of the tanker.
According to the Associated Press, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations, which provides warnings to sailors in the Middle East, said Thursday’s apparent seizure began early in the morning, in the waters between Oman and Iran in an area transited by ships coming in and out of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes.
