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A US destroyer intercepted a hijacked Israeli-managed oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden earlier today, freed the crew, and took the Houthi pirates into custody. My colleague Jeff Charles covered the piracy in this post, High Seas Drama: Another Israeli Tanker Seized by Unidentified Attackers Near Yemen.Shortly after dawn local time, the Central Park, a small Liberian-flagged oil and chemical tanker managed by an Israeli company registered in London, sent a distress call saying it was being boarded by armed men. The USS Mason, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was operating in the area. According to reports, the Mason directed...

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday approved the deployment of the USS Bataan amphibious readiness group and the 26th Marine Expeditional Unit to the Gulf region, according to US officials. The readiness group consists of three ships, including the Bataan, an amphibious assault ship. An expeditional unit usually consists of about 2,500 Marines. In an announcement, US Central Command said the deployment will provide "even greater flexibility and maritime capability in the region.” The announcement did not name the ships, but US officials detailed the units involved in the deployment on condition of anonymity to discuss troop movements. Along with...

The U.S. Navy deterred Iranian forces from seizing two commercial tankers on Wednesday in separate incidents. First, at about 1 a.m. local time, an Iranian navy vessel approached the Marshall Islands-flagged oil tanker TRF Moss in international waters in the Gulf of Oman. It departed when the U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer USS McFaul arrived at the scene, the U.S. 5th Fleet announced on Wednesday. Approximately three hours later, another Iranian vessel began harassing the Bahamian-flagged oil tanker Richmond Voyager in international waters roughly 20 miles off the coast of Muscat, Oman. It opened fire with both small arms and crew-served...

NEW - Iran seizes second oil tanker in a week — US Navy(Navy Video Of It In Link Below)https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1653709518247698437

Shipping companies have snapped up dozens of secondhand oil tankers this year, paying record prices for ice-class ships that can navigate frozen seas around Russia’s Baltic ports in winter. A driving force behind the purchases, say people familiar with the deals: To get Russian oil to market after the harshest sanctions to date strike Russia’s energy industry next week. The frenzy in a quiet corner of the shipping market is splitting the tanker industry in two. One part deals with Western oil companies, banks and insurers. The other, known informally in the industry as the “shadow fleet,” doesn’t, allowing it...

Thirteen tankers at heart of new ship-to-ship transhipment hub established mid-Atlantic to consolidate Russia-origin oil cargoes ... Evolving marine transport model seeks tankers to operate outside established markets, yet remain compliant with class, insurance and other regulatory and technical rules ... MYSTERY surrounds the identity of a China-based shipowner who has spent around $376m to acquire 13 tankers for deployment in high-risk, ship-to-ship transfers of Russia-origin crude in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Lloyd’s List has tracked five aframax tankers, seven very large crude carriers and one suezmax vessel to the anonymous buyer, via 20 separate but interconnected single-ship...

At a time when the mere thought of Russian vodka or caviar, let alone oil or gas, prompts uncontrollable shaking and revulsion, Reuters reports that no less than 12 tankers carrying Russia-linked cargoes of crude and refined products were approaching the United States on Wednesday, as suppliers rushed to deliver ahead of the U.S. government’s deadline to wind down Russian energy purchases, data from traders and Refinitiv Eikon showed. While the US recently banned Russian energy product imports due to the invasion of Ukraine, Washington’s ban gives importers a 45-day window until April 22 to discharge cargoes moving under pre-ban...

An unmanned tanker drone successfully refueled a fighter jet in mid-air during a test flight on Friday. The impressive feat, which involved a Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet, demonstrated the significant potential of unmanned tanker drones and could mark the beginning of the end for traditional piloted tanker aircraft. During the test flight, the drone - a Boeing-built device named MQ-25 Stingray - maintained its altitude and speed as the hose extended and the two aircraft briefly linked up to exchange fuel. The test was carried out from the MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Mascoutah, Illinois. In total, 325lbs of fuel...

It appears both Iran and Venezuela are ready and willing to test the outgoing Trump administration in a major gambit to skirt sanctions in a crude and fuel export scheme. The daily American military newspaper Stars & Stripes alongside Bloomberg reports this weekend that Iran “is sending its biggest fleet yet of tankers to Venezuela in defiance of U.S. sanctions to help the isolated nation weather a crippling fuel shortage,” based on sources familiar with their movements. “Some of the flotilla of about 10 Iranian vessels will also help export Venezuelan crude after discharging fuel, the people said, asking not...

By as early as the evening on Saturday or Sunday morning it's expected that the first among the five Iranian tankers transporting fuel to gasoline-starved Venezuela will enter the Latin American country's coastal waters. Maduro officials have issued an emergency notice to the United Nations of an illegal "threat of imminent use of military force by the United States." And with Washington threatening to block what it deems "sanctions-busting" by two "rogue states" - both under severe sanctions - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has issued his own last minute warning. Today we alerted the UN Security Council and Secretary General...

Here's a pretty dramatic shot of a whooole lotta oil parked off the coast of Southern California.

Iran is slowly taking off its gloves and has dropped its mask in the widening confrontation with Western countries and Israel. After the United Kingdom (UK) seized an Iranian tanker with oil bound for Syria on July 4, the Iranians embarked on a piracy campaign against British and other vessels in the Persian Gulf. The tanker, Grace 1, was carrying 2.1 million barrels of oil when it was detained by British Marines and will stay in Gibraltar for another month, a court in the British colony decided last Friday. Iran called the British action an “act of piracy” and again...

Can our drones take videos? Do we know how our Government got a video of an Iranian ship rescuing the sticky bomb that didn’t blow up on the tanker?

U.S. officials have told Fox News that the crew of one of the two stricken oil tankers damaged outside the Persian Gulf were detained by the Iranians Thursday after first being rescued by another merchant vessel. The crew of the Front Altair was first rescued by the Hyundai Dubai, according to U.S. officials, but Iranian gunboats quickly surrounded the ship and demanded the crew be turned over. The captain ultimately relented and ordered his crew to surrender. The 23 crew members are now being held in Iran. It’s not immediately clear what the next steps are. Pictures and footage from...

U.S. Secretary of STate Mike Pompeo has blamed Iran for the "blatant assault" on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier on Thursday. In a press conference Thursday afternoon, Pompeo said Iran is working to disrupt the flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz and are a deliberate part of a campaign to escalate tension. His comments came shortly after a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News that it saw an unexploded mine attached to the hull of the Panama-listed, Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous ship, one of the two ships attacked. It is the same type of mine...

[GCC=Gulf Cooperation Council] Makkah: The GCC Summit in Makkah has condemned the recent sabotage operations, which targeted four tankers in UAE’s regional waters and drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities. The GCC leaders discussed the exceptional circumstances and dangerous challenges the region is undergoing following the recent attacks on the UAE and Saudi Arabia and their ramifications and direct threat to the regional security and peace, to freedom of global marine navigation and trade as well as to world oil markets as a result of attempts by some countries to undermine security and stability of the region, support terrorism and...

After Chinese vessels were “caught red handed” – in the words of President Trump – by US spy satellites, illegally selling oil to North Korea, and following this morning’s news that a Hong Kong ship was seized after transferring oil to North Korea, Reuters is reporting ‘two senior Western European security sources’ confirm Russian tankers have supplied fuel to North Korea on at least three occasions in recent months by transferring cargoes at sea. As Reuters reports, the transfers in October and November indicate that smuggling from Russia to North Korea has evolved to loading cargoes at sea since Reuters...

Boeing is set to deliver a refueling tanker that can gas up a jet in midair in complete darkness -- the first of its kind. The U.S. Air Force is buying 179 of the new KC-46 'Pegasus' tankers, which are set to begin delivery at the end of this year. The Air Force has had stealthy jets for decades, but even they have to turn on their lights when refueling in the sky. The KC-46's ability to gas up an aircraft in complete darkness is a first for any military.

Last week, in the wake of Russian and US airstrikes on ISIS oil convoys, we asked three important questions: 1.Who are the commodity trading firms that have been so generously buying millions of smuggled oil barrels procured by the Islamic State at massive discounts to market, and then reselling them to other interested parties? In other words, who are the middlemen? 2.Can it possibly be true, as officials now claim, that the Obama administration refrained from bombing Islamic State oil trucks because Washington thought the group was "only" making $100 million per year instead of $400 million? 3.Is it likely,...