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The 'Empress Zonda', enroute from Itaguai to Tianjin, was boarded by six perpetrators, armed with knives, while transiting the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, about 2.6 nautical miles from Pulau Cula,in pos. 09° 22' N 117° 21' E, on Jan 17, 2026, at 3.54 a.m. The intruders stole engine spares and escaped. No injuries were reported.

The 'HK Tug 9', while towing the barge 'LKH 7887' in the eastbound lane of the Traffic Separation Scheme in Singapore Strait on Jan 5, 2026, was attacked 4.1 nautical miles from Pulau Nongsa in pos. 1°15'64 N 104° 4.73' E, by six perpetrators at 1.50 p.m., who stole scrap metal from the barge. No injuries were reported.

Iran has quietly released the 'St. Nikolas' without the cargo, which hadconsisted of one million barrels of Iraqi crude oil. The ship, which had been held since two years, headed to Oman. The manager Empire Navigation confirmed the ship reached Oman on Jan 10, 2026, and that the crew was in good health. The Iranians had damaged some of the equipment aboard the vessel while holding it to prevent its detection. Iran initially had said it had seized the oil cargo aboard in retaliation for a U.S. seizure, but Reuters reported months later that Iran quietly released the oil in a ship-to-ship transfer.The seizure had been in retaliation against the ship’s manager, the Empire Navigation, Greece. In 2023, the Empire Navigation helped the US authorities to seize the Iranian cargo aboard the vessel, formerly named 'Suez Rajan'. The US Court ordered the seizure of Iranian cargo from Suez Rajan. In August 2023, the Iranian cargo was offloaded from the vessel at the Texas coast. Following this, the tanker was renamed and returned to the Middle East. It had been seized along with its cargo by Iran on Jan 11, 2024. The oil cargo has been transferred through ship-to-ship onto the 'T.'Semahat' (IMO: 9804148) near Larak Island between July 23 and 25 . Tupris, a Turkish refiner, stated that it had purchased the crude oil from SOMO, an Iraqi state oil company. The refiner also noted that the crude oil is now destined for the refinery and scheduled to arrive in September. The 'T. Semahat was moored at Khor Fakkan Anchorage on July 26.

The 'Liao Dong Yu 578' was hijacked off the Puntland coast, Somalia, by pirates on the afternoon of Jan 1, 2026. It was attacked off the coast of Bandarbeyla by pirates intending to release the crew members in exchange for ransom. It was its second hijacking. It was earlier captured off Puntland in Nov 2024 and was released in Jan 2025 after a ransom of 2 million dollars was paid to the pirates. The hijacking incident was confirmed by the European Union’s Naval Force. Dave Harvilicz, Deputy Secretary for Cyber, Infrastructure, Risk and Resilience Policies at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said that the vessel was doing illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing off Somalia. It caught the previous yellowfin tuna, whose stocks are being rapidly depleted.

The 'Super Shuttle Roro 9', which was moored at Batangas Anchorage.in pos. 13° 46' N 120° 60' E, was boarded by five unarmed perpetrators on Jan 3, 2026, at 11.50 p.m. The intruders stole cables from the ferry. No injruies were reported.