4 min readUpdated: Jun 9, 2026 04:04 AM IST
All 24 Indian seafarers on board the foreign-flagged oil products tanker, Marivex, have been safely evacuated and taken to Oman after an incident of fire was reported on board around 1.30 pm Monday, a senior Shipping Ministry official and the Embassy of India in Muscat said.
Even as the incident came amid renewed attacks in West Asia, particularly between Iran and Israel, Marivex was well outside the Strait of Hormuz area where maritime security has been a major concern. When the fire was reported, Marivex was south of the Gulf of Oman, in waters off Oman’s east coast.
However, according to the Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI), one of the seafarers on board the vessel informed the union that the Marivex was hit by a missile, also damaging a couple of its lifeboats. The vessel sent out distress calls, stating it was on fire and needed to be evacuated, after which evacuation of the stranded seafarers began, as per information posted by the FSUI on X.
In a post on X, The Embassy of India in Muscat said, “We are thankful to the Omani authorities for their swift response and rescue of all the 24 crew members of Indian nationality, onboard MT Marivex, and ensuring their safety.”
Shipping Ministry Director, Opesh Kumar Sharma, said the cause of the fire was not known yet and was being looked into. “Whether the ship was hit by a projectile or not, presently we are trying to get the updated information…We are in touch with the owners. We are trying to ascertain the facts,” Sharma said. As per preliminary information, the tanker was not carrying any cargo.
The initial distress call from Marivex is learnt to have alleged that the attack was by the US Navy, although there was no confirmation from the government. The US is running its own blockade of Iranian ports using warships in the Gulf of Oman. According to vessel tracking data from MarineTraffic, Marivex was sailing to Oman’s Duqm.
“There has been a recent report that today (Monday) around 1.30 pm, there has been a fire reported on the vessel MT Marivex, in which there were 24 Indian seafarers. This is the preliminary information we have received, based on which, as per available information, all Indian seafarers are presently safe. We are coordinating with the Ministry of External Affairs, our Indian missions abroad, Indian Navy, and the Ministry of Defence to ensure their safety,” Sharma said.
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According to Sharma, the vessel’s owner informed that Marivex was sailing under the flag of Madagascar. However, global shipping database Equasis lists the vessel’s flag as a false flag, which suggests that the ship may have wrongly claimed it was sailing under the Madagascar flag.
According to government sources, Marivex is a Palau-flagged and a blacklisted/OFAC sanctioned vessel. Over the last several days the vessel had made four attempts to evade the US blockade. Three times it was turned away after repeated warnings from the US Navy, sources said. On June 8, the ship made its fourth attempt to slip through the blockade by using Omani territorial waters and switched off its signal devices, sources added.
According to the Equasis database, Marivex is owned and operated by Panama-based Arihant Shipping Inc, and was built in 2009.
