US Moves to Seize $600M Iranian Crude From Three VLCCs

Tankers Head West After Months-Long Standoff

According to a report by The Maritime Executive, three very large crude carriers stopped by U.S. forces as part of Washington’s economic blockade on Iran are now tracked moving toward the United States, fueling speculation that a major cargo forfeiture is imminent. Tracking firm TankerTrackers.com first flagged the movement, estimating that the combined cargo — roughly six million barrels of Iranian crude — is worth close to $600 million at current prices.

Data from Kpler and other tracking providers has since identified the vessels involved. Two are VLCCs boarded in the Indian Ocean in April: the Tifani (IMO 9273337), a 300,000 dwt tanker falsely flagged to Botswana, and the Majestic X (IMO 9198317), a 281,500 dwt tanker falsely claiming Guyanese registry. Both had loaded Iranian crude and were apparently bound for China before being intercepted, and both have since been tracked sailing north along the Brazilian coast toward the Atlantic.

The third vessel, initially harder to pin down, has been identified as the Davina (300,976 dwt), though many databases still list her under a prior name, Lenore. She had rotated through false registries in Curacao and Palau before being stopped off Sri Lanka in June, and has since rounded the Cape of Good Hope into the Atlantic.

Legal Basis and Precedent

U.S. Central Command has characterized the stops as an exercise of the “right of visit,” targeting vessels operating without a valid flag state — a designation that lets American forces board and inspect ostensibly stateless ships. The Department of Homeland Security followed up with its own inspections, and officials have signaled they intend to pursue formal seizure orders once the tankers reach U.S. waters, likely in Texas.

This would not be the first time Washington has gone after Iranian-linked cargo. In 2020, U.S. authorities seized and sold oil products from tankers bound for Venezuela. In 2023, the cargo aboard the Suez Rajan was confiscated after interdiction, though the vessel itself was later released to sail on under a new name. Iran retaliated in that case by seizing the same ship in the Persian Gulf in 2024, taking its cargo as what it called compensation. The Trump administration has also reportedly moved to revive the historic “prize court” mechanism used to adjudicate the legality of seizing enemy merchant vessels, a process that has previously dragged on for extended periods and drawn complaints from government lawyers over the cost of maintaining detained tankers.

Iran, for its part, has labeled the blockade and associated seizures piracy, and has tied any reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to the blockade being lifted. CENTCOM maintains that enforcement continues, reporting that as of late September it had redirected 122 commercial vessels to ensure compliance.

What This Means for Owners, Managers, and Charterers

For commercial operators, this case is a pointed reminder of how quickly a vessel’s paper trail can become a liability. Each of the three tankers involved had cycled through false flag registrations — Botswana, Guyana, Curacao, Palau — a pattern increasingly common among vessels moving sanctioned cargo and one that inspectors, surveyors, and port state control officers are trained to flag. Falsified registry alone can trigger boarding under the right-of-visit doctrine, independent of the cargo’s origin.

For charterers and cargo interests further down the chain, the episode underscores the value of rigorous due diligence before fixing tonnage or accepting cargo documentation at face value — verifying flag state legitimacy, ownership structures, and voyage history rather than relying solely on AIS or paperwork provided by counterparties. It also raises a practical question for the wider tanker market: as forfeiture actions accumulate and the prize court mechanism is reactivated, owners operating anywhere near sanctioned trades may face longer, costlier detentions even where their own compliance is not directly at issue, given how entangled vessel identity verification has become with cargo enforcement.

A fourth vessel, the VLCC Skywave (IMO 9328716), stopped in May between Malaysia and Sri Lanka on similarly falsified Botswana registry, remains unaccounted for in current reporting — a reminder that the full scope of the blockade’s tanker seizures may still be understated.

Reviewed by Ibrahim Halil Ceylan, Marine Surveyor at Apeks Marine.