Iran releases oil carried by tanker St Nikolas, cargo owner says

ATHENS (Reuters) -Iran has released the oil cargo of a Greek-owned, Marshall-Islands-flagged tanker it seized in the Gulf of Oman earlier this year, a shipping source told Reuters on Thursday.

The vessel, M/T St. Nikolas, is still being held by Iran, the source added. It was laden with 1 million barrels of Iraqi crude oil destined for Turkey when it was seized.

"The cargo was released earlier this week after negotiations," the source said.

Turkish refiner Tupras said in a statement that the St. Nikolas had been holding around 1 million barrels of crude oil that it had purchased from the Iraqi state oil company SOMO.

"The entire cargo was recovered through a ship-to-ship transfer conducted between July 23-25, 2024. The crude oil is now en route to the refinery and is expected to arrive in September," Tupras said.

The cargo was transferred onto the Turkey-flagged tanker T. Semahat earlier this week via a ship-to-ship transfer near Iran’s Larak Island, said Claire Jungman, chief of staff at U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, which tracks Iran-related tanker traffic via satellite data.

T.Semahat's Turkey-based operator Ditas is majority-owned by Tupras.

The vessel had the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates as its destination and was sailing away from Iran on Thursday, LSEG shipping data showed.

Iran seized the St. Nikolas in January in retaliation for the confiscation last year of the same vessel and its oil by the U.S., Iranian state media had reported at the time.

Iran's foreign and oil ministries were not immediately available to comment.

(Reporting by Renee Maltezou in Athens, Jonathan Saul in London and Ece Toksabay in Ankara, Additional reporting Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Mark Heinrich, David Evans and)