The British-flagged tanker Stena Impero, with a Filipino seafarer officer on board, has not yet left the Iranian port although there are strong indications that they will be released soon, a senior diplomatic official said.
“The papers for the release of the ship and its crew have been processed and approved. Maybe the crew is just preparing the ship prior to its departure from Iran,” a diplomatic source told The Filipino Times.
Earlier, the Swedish government had announced that the ship and the crew of Stena Impero will be released soon. The oil tanker is being operated by Swedish company Stena Bulk.
The ship and the crew were detained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards on July 19 after passing through the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf. It happened two weeks after Britain detained an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar, cranking up tensions in the region in the wake of attacks on other merchant vessels that Washington blamed on Tehran.
Aside from the Filipino officer, other nationalities on board are Indian, Russian and Latvian.
Iranian government spokesman Ali Raiei said they have already completed the legal process for the release of the Stena Impero.
“The legal work and administrative procedures for the release of the English tanker have been completed but I have no information on the time of the release,” Rabiei said as quoted by semi-official news agency ILNA.
Another semi-official Iranian news agency Fars quoted Rabiei as saying: “The oil tanker can move, and the decisions indicate the end of the detention.” He did not elaborate.
Stena Bulk, the operator of the tanker said they have received word today that the ship will be released “within a few hours.”
“So we understand that the political decision to release the ship has been taken,” Erik Hanell, chief executive of Stena Bulk, told the Swedish public broadcaster SVT.
“We hope to be able to head out within a few hours, but we don’t want to anticipate events. We want to see that the ship sails out of Iranian territorial waters,” Hanell told SVT.
The source from the Philippine government said they are also hoping that the release would happen “soon.”
The British Foreign Office likewise called on Iran “to immediately release the Stena Impero and her remaining crew who continue to be illegally detained.”
TankerTrackers.com, an independent online service that tracks shipments and storage of crude oil, said they have located the Stena Impero in their satellite still in Iranian port.
UPDATE on #StenaImpero #OOTT
We have enough data now to show us that the tanker is currently engaged in Ship-to-Ship transfer in order to receive fuel to power the engines ahead of her homebound journey. STS is still in session from what we can see. Stena’s AIS is still offline. pic.twitter.com/3EmZ4nyRlW
— TankerTrackers.com, Inc.⚓️? (@TankerTrackers) September 23, 2019
“We have enough data now to show us that the tanker is currently engaged in Ship-to-Ship transfer in order to receive fuel to power the engines ahead of her home-bound journey. STS is still in session from what we can see. Stena’s AIS is still offline,” TankerTrackers.com tweeted.
The Philippine government meanwhile continues to monitor the release of the British tanker, especially the Filipino seafarer whom they refuse to identify.
