Bloomberg: Oil tanker bombed off UAE port shipping fuel to Iran

The Andrea Victory is sailing in the northern Persian Gulf and signaling Iran’s Bandar Imam Khomeini as a destination, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

The data show the vessel, which was attacked off the coast of the UAE, is full and transporting fuel to Iran.

The Norwegian-flagged Andrea Victory was one of four vessels damaged by explosions off the UAE port of Fujairah in May. Two other tankers were bombed in Oman Sea in June.

Iran pointed fingers to those trying to intensify tension between Iran and the United States, implying Israel, Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Fujairah, the Persian Gulf’s main oil-trading hub, sits just outside the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic chokepoint at the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

The Andrea Victory, after repairs in Dubai’s Port Rashid, appears to have loaded fuel in a ship-to-ship transfer near Fujairah earlier this month, according to tanker tracking.

It was unclear what type of fuel the vessel is carrying. The vessel’s operations have returned to “business as usual,” said Dustin Eno, a crisis response manager at Navigate PR, which works on behalf of the ship’s manager Thome Group.

Eno, who spoke by phone on July 1, declined to comment on where the ship was headed.