{"id":878,"date":"2026-10-02T03:32:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:32:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/oman-restates-ais-on-rules-for-foreign-ships-in-its-territorial-sea\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T03:32:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:32:55","slug":"oman-restates-ais-on-rules-for-foreign-ships-in-its-territorial-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regulasshipping.com\/blog\/oman-restates-ais-on-rules-for-foreign-ships-in-its-territorial-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Oman restates AIS-on rules for foreign ships in its territorial sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Oman Maritime Security Centre set out, on Thursday, 1 October, the security and operating requirements that apply to foreign ships and maritime units in the Sultanate\u2019s territorial sea. The Arabian Stories carried the Muscat note the same day. The centre\u2019s list is short and operational: keep the Automatic Identification System switched on continuously; do not stop except after completing procedures at a maritime port; stay in licensed positions and obey applicable maritime laws; enter protected or restricted areas only with official approval; declare weapons and ammunition and hold the required licences; and do not photograph public or private property. Those points, the centre said, rest on Article 10 of Ministerial Decision No. 30\/2026 of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, the regulation governing the operation of foreign ships and maritime units in Oman\u2019s territorial sea.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s product is a reminder, not a new statute. Official Gazette No. 1633 published the decision on 1 February 2026. It sits on the Maritime Law issued by Royal Decree 19\/2023. Mussadak Mirza of Bait Al Qanoon summarised the framework for Mondaq on 27 February: the regulation entered into force in early February, applies to foreign ships and marine units carrying out activities in the territorial sea, and treats unlicensed activity as prohibited. Limited exemptions cover naval and military vessels, ships calling solely to load or unload at an Omani port, and ships that enter because of a genuine emergency and leave promptly once it is resolved. Those exemptions are narrow. They do not turn a Hormuz transit, an anchorage wait or an STS into an unlicensed free pass.<\/p>\n

The news value on 1 October is the Maritime Security Centre putting Article 10 back on the bridge at the same moment masters are running the southern Omani corridor, lingering off Musandam and Sohar, and switching AIS off to reduce a Hormuz targeting picture that JMIC still rates SEVERE. Oman\u2019s territorial sea is not a grey zone between a UKMTO warning and a PGSA hail. It is a licensed coastal-state water in which the centre expects a live AIS signature, a declared position and a local agent who can show a licence.<\/p>\n

Article 10 is a watch-condition list, not a port circular<\/h2>\n

The centre\u2019s Thursday list is the language a master can put on a passage-plan remark. Continuous AIS in Omani territorial waters is the first line. That is a coastal-state instruction, not a company preference. JMIC Update 101, issued earlier on Thursday, told the same operators that AIS-on ships in the Strait of Hormuz can expect elevated projectile risk and directed VHF hails toward the northern Iranian-controlled route. Those two sentences can sit on one bridge. They do not cancel each other. Dark transits that were tolerated as a Hormuz mitigation become a compliance problem the moment the ship is inside Oman\u2019s territorial sea, including the Musandam approaches that commercial traffic has been using as the southern corridor.<\/p>\n

Stopping is the second line. Foreign ships are not to stop except after completing procedures at a maritime port. That matters for ships that have been drifting, waiting for a Sohar STS window, holding for a damage survey, or loitering while a charterer decides whether to keep AIS off through the strait. A wait that looks like prudent seamanship in a SEVERE-rated lane can look like an unlicensed stop to the Maritime Security Centre if it is not tied to completed port formalities and a licensed position. The Mondaq summary of the February regulation is the paperwork behind that sentence: operate only in approved areas and activities, keep AIS active, obtain a departure certificate before exit, and leave Omani waters within 24 hours of licence expiry or cancellation.<\/p>\n

Weapons, photography and restricted areas are the third cluster. Armed teams, citadel stores and any embarked ammunition have to be declared and licensed. Protected or restricted areas need prior official approval. Photographing public or private property is out. For a ship that has been taking reconnaissance photographs of the Musandam coast, of other traffic, or of Omani port and energy infrastructure, that is a legal line, not a public-relations preference. It is also a reminder that the centre\u2019s mandate, as published by the Ministry of Defence, includes port and offshore-installation protection, illegal trade, pollution, obstruction of international routes and assistance to ships in territorial waters. Thursday\u2019s note is the operator-facing slice of that mandate.<\/p>\n

The February licence is still the gate<\/h2>\n

Decision 30\/2026 is a licensing regime, not only an AIS sermon. Mondaq records three licence types: a single-voyage licence, a multiple-voyage licence, and a scheduled cruise licence valid for one year with entry and exit dates specified per voyage. The ship\u2019s Omani shipping agent files the application at least three days before entry, with registration papers, insurance including P&I, and a description of the intended activity. The authorities have three days to decide. Unlicensed activity in the territorial sea is prohibited. Exemptions for a straight port call, a warship or a genuine emergency do not, on that reading, cover a foreign ship that wants to wait, transfer cargo, embark a team or run a non-port activity inside 12 nautical miles.<\/p>\n

Agents carry more of the file than a standard port call. Mondaq lists customs registration, immigration coordination, payment of fees and fines, and compliance through the stay. Penalties in that February summary run from 500 to 5,000 Omani rials, with suspension of operations and cancellation or refusal of licences also available. That is a commercial delay and a repeat-call problem, not only a ticket. A company that has been treating Musandam as an unmarked southern lane, and Sohar as an informal STS roadstead, needs the agent to say which of those movements is a licensed activity and which is a port call that still has to leave once the berth or the emergency is finished.<\/p>\n

Do not recast Thursday\u2019s centre note as a Hormuz reopen, a new traffic-separation scheme, or a substitute for UKMTO, MSCIO or NAVCENT reporting. Oman has already been the coastal state that towed El Gaia, recovered Cape Dao\u2019s crew off Musandam and hosted STS receiving hulls off Sohar. Those are salvage, SAR and commercial-geography files. They do not waive Article 10. They also do not convert the southern Omani corridor into an unlicensed dark lane. A ship that goes AIS-off to reduce projectile risk in the strait still has to explain a dark track once it is inside Omani territorial waters, and it still has to show a licence if it is doing anything other than a narrow exempted call or an emergency that it then leaves.<\/p>\n

Keep the file off the UAE MPCI desk and off Iran\u2019s Persian Gulf Strait Authority channel. MPCI is a container pre-load filing into, through or remaining on board at UAE ports. PGSA is an Iranian wartime declaration product with U.S. sanctions exposure attached. Oman\u2019s Thursday note is a territorial-sea operating rule for foreign ships already in, or about to enter, Omani waters. It does not close a UKMTO warning, change a Joint War Committee listed area, or authorise a stop off Musandam while the charterer waits for a Hormuz window. Documentation, the local agent, the DPA and the master should own it together. The CSO should see it because the AIS and weapons lines collide with the current Hormuz BMP pack.<\/p>\n

What Operators Should Note<\/h2>\n