On 3 August 2021, Asphalt Princess was widely reported in international media as the target of a hijacking in the Gulf of Oman, 97 kilometres (60 mi) east of the port of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates.

[2][3][4][5] Ships nearby in the Gulf of Oman were advised to exercise “extreme caution” by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) earlier in the day.

[7] In 1981, Horizon Development Corp Ltd purchased the ship, renamed it Rio Orinoco and registered the vessel in Limassol, Cyprus.

Following this, the Canadian Coast Guard issued a contract proposal for salvors, deciding on Groupe Desgagné in mid June 1991.

[12] As a salvage reward, the ship was acquired by Groupe Desgagnés and taken to MIL Davie Shipbuilding in Lauzon, Quebec to be rebuilt.

The vessel remained in Groupe Desgagnés service until 2017, transporting asphalt from Venezuela to ports along the Atlantic coast of North America.

[14] On 3 July 2015, Groupe Desgagné announced they would be replacing Thalassa Desgagnes with a new vessel, powered by less polluting natural gas-fired engines.

[16] At 04:44 UTC on 4 August, UKMTO released an update declaring the incident a “potential hijacking”, where a group of eight or nine armed individuals were believed to have boarded the vessel without authorisation and ordered the ship to sail to Iran.

[6] At 07:26 UTC on 4 August, Al Jazeera reported on Twitter, that the Iranian Armed Forces claimed to be "providing assistance and security for merchant ships" and were ready to send “relief units” to the vessel.