Iran Releases Greek-Owned Tanker St. Nikolas After Two-Year Detention

 

Stock Photo: Evgeny Shulin / Shutterstock

Mike Schuler

January 12, 2026

Iran has quietly released the Marshall Islands-flagged, Greek-owned oil tanker St. Nikolas after holding the vessel for approximately two years, according to maritime intelligence firm TankerTrackers.


The release marks the latest chapter in a prolonged series of tit-for-tat vessel seizures between Iran and Western nations that have periodically roiled shipping through critical Middle Eastern chokepoints.

Iranian naval and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) forces initially seized the St. Nikolas in January 2024 as it transited the Gulf of Oman carrying Iraqi crude oil bound for Turkey. At the time, Iranian authorities claimed they were acting under a “court order,” though the seizure was widely viewed as retaliation for earlier U.S. actions.
The tanker’s detention traces back to April 2023, when U.S. authorities confiscated the vessel—then known as the Suez Rajan—in the South China Sea. That operation targeted over 980,000 barrels of Iranian crude oil belonging to the IRGC. The ship was subsequently brought to U.S. waters, where it waited off the Texas coast for more than two and a half months before the oil was discharged.
The U.S. Justice Department later revealed that the seizure came after the vessel’s bareboat charterer, Suez Rajan Limited, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate sanctions against Iran. As part of a deferred prosecution agreement, Greece-based Empire Navigation agreed to transport the Iranian oil to the United States for physical seizure while covering the voyage expenses.

Iran’s response was swift and sustained. Almost immediately after the seizure of the Suez Rajan, Iran retaliated by seizing two tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, namely the Advantage Sweet and Niovi, the latter of which Iran continues to hold. The Advantage Sweet was carrying cargo for U.S. oil giant Chevron, though Iran’s rationale for detaining the Niovi remained less clear.

The pattern mirrors a 2022 incident in which Greece impounded the Iranian tanker Pegas on behalf of the United States, prompting Iranian forces to seize two Greek tankers a month later. After the U.S. confiscated part of the cargo, Greece’s supreme court ultimately ruled the oil had to be returned to Iran.

The Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman together form a crucial waterway through which a fifth of all traded oil passes. The region has become increasingly fraught since 2019, when Iran began a series of ship seizures and assaults following the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal in 2018.

Following the Suez Rajan seizure in April 2023, Greece—the world’s largest ship-owning nation—issued warnings to shipowners to avoid sailing close to Iranian waters to prevent possible retaliation.

The release of the St. Nikolas comes as Iran faces mounting domestic unrest, with at least 599 people killed—including 510 protesters—in nationwide demonstrations that began in late December over economic hardship.

President Donald Trump recently announced that any country conducting business with Iran will face a 25% tariff on all business with the United States. “This Order is final and conclusive,” Trump stated in a post on Truth Social.

As of publication, neither Empire Navigation nor Greek authorities have publicly commented on the St. Nikolas release.