US approves offloading of suspected Iranian crude from seized Suez Rajan

The US Treasury Department has given the green light to offload crude from a suezmax tanker that Washington seized in April.

Empire Navigation’s 159,000-dwt tanker Suez Rajan (built 2011) has been granted a license to import the crude that is on board the vessel, according to the Financial Times.

As TradeWinds has reported, the tanker was seized by US authorities after spending more than a year anchored off Singapore amid two legal disputes and a Justice Department investigation into suspicions that its cargo was of Iranian origin.

The move was followed by Iran’s seizure of the 159,000-dwt suezmax tanker Advantage Sweet (built 2012), which is on charter to Chevron.

The ship was rerouted to the US, and has been anchored at the Galveston Offshore Loading Area off Texas.

The Financial Times reported that the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), which is the ship’s classification society, has boarded the vessel to carry out a safety inspection.

The tanker is expected to move to the port of Galveston in days.

TradeWinds has requested comment from the US Treasury and Justice Departments, and from ABS.

Maritime lawyers believe that the Justice Department likely has a secret order in hand to seize the Suez Rajan’s cargo. Such documents are typically unsealed only after an arrest or attachment is carried out.

Former US officials told the Financial Times that Washington will likely sell the oil, or it may have already done so, and contribute the proceeds to a fund created by Congress for US victims of state-sponsored terrorism.

The Suez Rajan is owned outright by Greece’s Empire Navigation after paying off a lease from Oaktree Capital Management’s Fleetscape unit.