Iranian oil tanker prepares for Gibraltar departure

The tanker, which carries 2.1 million barrels of Iranian light crude oil, had been detained for over a month in Gibraltar for allegedly attempting to breach European Union sanctions on Syria.

Gibraltar:The shipping agent for an Iranian supertanker which was caught in a diplomatic standoff, says the vessel is ready to depart Gibraltar on Sunday or Monday, even as the US made a last-minute effort to seize it again.

The agent said that the vessel will start sailing away as soon as new crews dispatched to the British overseas territory take over command of the ship.

He said that the new crews were Indian and Ukrainian nationals hired by the Indian managers of the ship and that his company had not been informed about the supertanker's next destination.

The tanker, which carries 2.1 million barrels of Iranian light crude oil, had been detained for over a month in Gibraltar for allegedly attempting to breach European Union sanctions on Syria.

The arrest fuelled tension between London and Tehran, which seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz in apparent retaliation.

Analysts had said that the release of the Grace 1 by Gibraltar could see Britain's Stena Impero go free.

But late on Friday, a day after the tanker was released from detention, the US obtained a warrant to seize the vessel over violations of US sanctions, money laundering and terrorism statutes.

Washington is seeking to take control of the oil tanker, all of the petroleum aboard and 995,000 US dollars, unsealed court documents showed.

It was unclear if that could happen within a 24-hour time frame as Gibraltar officials have said any request to seize the vessel would have to make its way through the territory's court.

The time window for a new seizure was rapidly closing on Saturday, as workers already repainted the vessel's bow with the name "Adrian Darya 1" over the place where "Grace 1" had been blackened out.

The ship was reportedly no longer sailing under a Panamanian flag, but no signs of a new one could be seen.