BP oil tanker ‘shelters off Saudi Arabia amid fears it could be seized by Iran’ in retaliation for Gibraltar ship detention

British Heritage vessel believed to have made u-turn over potential tit-for-tat action by Tehran

An oil tanker operated by BP is reportedly sheltering inside the Persian Gulf amid fears it could be seized by Iran.

A vessel named British Heritage was heading for Iraq’s Basrah terminal before making an “abrupt” u-turn and returning to the safety of the Saudi Arabian coastline on 6 July, according to Bloomberg.

The website reported the British energy giant is worried about retaliation by Tehran after the Royal Marines seized an Iranian oil tanker entering the Mediterranean off the coast of Gibraltar last week.

BP declined to comment, but The Independent understands the company’s ship did change course at the weekend and satellite tracking services confirm it is now sheltering off the coast of Saudi Arabia.

“It’s a psychological game that’s being played,” Olivier Jakob, managing director of consultancy Petromatrix GmbH, said. “Nobody wants to be that one whose vessel is seized in a ‘tit-for-tat’.”

It comes as Iran’s foreign minister accused the UK of “piracy” for seizing and detaining the Grace 1 crude oil supertanker on Thursday. Officials at No.10 have said the vessel was bound for Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.

“Iran is neither a member of the EU nor subject to any European oil embargo,” Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Monday.

“Last I checked, EU was against extraterritoriality. UK’s unlawful seizure of a tanker with Iranian oil on behalf of #B_Team is piracy, pure and simple,” the foreign minister added, using the derisory “B team” term Iranian officials use for the Trump administration.

Iranian state TV said Britain’s ambassador to Tehran had been summoned Monday for a third time over the seizure. Hard-liners in Iran have demanded retaliatory measures, with the country’s former Revolutionary Guards commander Mohsen Rezaee last week claiming it was the country’s “duty” to seize a British oil tanker.

On Monday Iran threatened to restart deactivated centrifuges and ramp up enrichment of uranium to 20 per cent as its next potential big move away from a 2015 nuclear agreement that the US abandoned last year.

The threats, made by Tehran’s nuclear agency spokesman, would go far beyond the small steps Iran has taken in the past week to nudge stocks of fissile material just beyond limits set out in the pact.

Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, confirmed that Tehran had enriched uranium beyond the deal’s limit of 3.67 per cent purity, passing 4.5 per cent, according to news agency ISNA.

Mr Kamalvandi also said the country’s options within the next 60 days included enriching uranium to 20 per cent purity or beyond, and restarting the IR-2 M centrifuges dismantled under the deal.

“Let me be clear: Iran should not confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve,” vice president Mike Pence said on Monday, reiterating Washington’s stance on the dispute.

The confrontation has brought the US and Iran close to the brink of conflict, with Donald Trump calling off air strikes against Iranian targets last month only minutes before impact.

Additional reporting by agencies