Economic Warfare: Tanker Boarded by ‘Men in Military Uniform’ in Gulf of Oman

Even more attacks on trade, the lifeblood of the West, this time off the coast of Iran in the Gulf of Oman where an oil tanker has been boarded by “unauthorised boarders… wearing military style black uniforms”.

Communications were lost with an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman in the early hours of Thursday morning, after having apparently been boarded by masked men and diverted towards Iran. The British Royal Navy-run UK Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO) said in a warning to mariners operating in the area that a vessel had been “boarded by 4-5 armed unauthorised persons” who were described to have been “wearing military-style black uniforms with black masks”.

The UKMTO said the boarding took place around 0330 London time (2230 Wednesday EST) and that “unknown voices” were heard in a communication between the master and the ship owner’s security office. Communications were lost with the oil tanker and it altered course towards Iranian territorial waters, away from Oman.

Britain’s Sky News reports claims by Ambrey, a security contractor which operates its own private navy, that the ship is the oil tanker St Nikolas, which they say was boarded by a team of six men who “covered the surveillance cameras as they boarded”. If it is the St Nikolas involved as claimed, it is the same oil tanker that was previously involved in a dispute between Iran and the United States last year.

The ship had been called the Suez Rajan then, and was carrying nearly one million barrels of Iranian oil to China which the U.S. said breached international sanctions. The United States seized the tanker in April 2023 and the oil was taken to America instead.

While the party responsible for today’s attack on the Gulf of Oman oil tanker has not yet been positively established, the history of the St Nikolas in U.S.-Iran disputes, the location of the boarding, and it making a heading for Iran after capture suggests Tehran’s involvement.

The boarding is just the latest of dozens of strikes against merchant shipping including oil tankers, car carriers, and container ships in recent weeks, attacks against the Western economy masterminded by Iran feeding into a broader war against Western interests linked to the Hamas terror attack on Israel last year. So far these maritime attacks against merchant shipping have been performed by Iran-backed Shiite Islamist extremist Houthi militias in Yemen, which have been striking in the Red Sea, which like the Gulf of Oman is a critical waterway for global trade and features a narrow, strategically important strait which makes shipping more vulnerable to attack and interdiction.

A handful of Western navies have scrambled to fend off the strikes, but attacks on trade in two distinct theatres concurrently would make covering merchant ships effectively and resupply of deployed warships more challenging. Concerted attacks would also likely damage market confidence in the safety of maritime trade, driving up shipping insurance prices, an impact which would near-certainly have a noticeable knock-on effect on consumer prices and inflation rates.

Wednesday saw the largest strike against shipping lanes yet, as the USN and RN fended off 21 drones, cruise missiles and a ballistic missile heading for civilian ships in the Red Sea from Yemen.