“The two vessels are still en route to Batam. We expect them to arrive tomorrow [Jan. 26],” Bakamla sea operations director Cdre. Suwito told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Suwito added that the vessels were under the escort of Bakamla patrol vessel KN Marore 322, with the reinforcement of patrol vessel KN Belut Laut 406.

KN Marore 322 intercepted the Iranian flagged MT Horse and Panamanian flagged MT Freya “red-handed” as the two tankers were conducting an STS oil transfer operation, having turned off their Automatic Identification System (AIS), lowered their flags and covered up the vessels’ names.

Both tankers are very large crude carriers (VLCCs), or “supertankers”, each capable of carrying up to 2.2 million barrels of crude oil. The Iran-flagged MT Horse is owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), while the Panama-flagged MT Freya is owned by Shanghai Future Ship Management.

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Suwito said Bakamla chief Vice Adm. Aan Kurnia would establish a joint investigative task force that involved all relevant ministries and state institutions.

 

Bakamla chief spokesman Col. Wisnu Pramanfita confirmed on Monday that the joint team would comprise officials from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Forestry and Environment Ministry, the Transportation Ministry, and the Immigration Directorate General, as well as relevant units of the National Police.

He added that Bakamla had detained 36 Iranians crew members of MT Horse and 25 Chinese crew members of MT Freya.

Asked on Monday whether the Iranian vessel was suspected of breaking any United States sanctions on Iran’s energy sector, Suwito said the matter did not fall within Bakamla’s jurisdiction.

“We focus on violations conducted in [Indonesian territorial] waters,” he added.

On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stated that Tehran had asked Jakarta for details on the seizure of an Iranian-flagged vessel, Reuters reported, claiming that the incident was due to "a technical issue and it happens in [the] shipping field".

"Our Ports Organization and the ship owner company are looking to find the cause of the issue and resolve it," Khatibzadeh was quoted as saying on a televised weekly news conference.

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Meanwhile, Iranian Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh reportedly confirmed that MT Horse was carrying Iranian oil and that Tehran was "pursuing the case” while  “awaiting further details about the seized oil tanker”, according to Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA).

Suwito said that when Bakamla officers made visual contact, they had observed fuel hoses between the two tankers, indicating that the STS transfer was ongoing.

KN Marore 322 detected the two crude carriers at about 5:30 a.m. on Sunday while patrolling the area under domestic maritime security and safety Operation Trisula-I/21. The two tankers were spotted in a stationary mode with their AIS transceivers turned off, Wisnu said in a press statement on Sunday.

The patrol vessel’s commanding officer, Lt. Col. Yuli Eko Prihartanto, ordered KN Marore 322 to approach the two foreign vessels and made visual contact at 6 a.m.

The Indonesian vessel noted that the tankers were in the middle of an STS transfer and that the ship names were covered up. It also spotted traces of oil around MT Frea. It attempt to contact the tankers on marine radio channel 16, the international distress frequency, but received no response.

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Yuli then reported the suspicious activity to Suwito, who ordered the KN Marore 322 to send visit, board, search and seizure (VBSS) teams to the foreign tankers.

An initial onboard inspection found that the two tankers were in violation of the transit passage of Indonesian Archipelagic Shipping Lane I (ALKI I) by anchoring outside the 25-nautical-mile corridor of the ALKI I, turning off their AIS devices, not flying their flags and obscuring the vessels’ names.