October 2020 Iran Tanker Tracking

On October 26, 2020, the Trump administration slapped counterterrorism sanctions on Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Company and its tanker subsidiary, NITC.  But Iran’s blacklisted fleet does not -- nor cannot -- export all the oil by itself.  It needs a lot of help from the world’s shipping community – specifically, foreign ships that are willing to violate every rule and regulation for financial gain.

UANI has been tracking these illicit developments for 18 months.  Some vessels make direct calls at Iranian ports and pick up the oil, brazenly aware that tracking their movements is easy via land-based satellites.

Others, more mindful of the sanctions threat, receive oil via ‘ship-to-ship’ (STS) transfers. These are manoeuvers carried out on the high seas, away from terrestrial trackers.  While all ships above a certain length are required to transmit their locations with onboard transponders continuously, these ships simply switch off (‘go dark’) for extended periods in an effort to hide their movements.

However, using a variety of methods and sources, UANI has managed to catch dozens of these STS transfers in the act. The following are just a small sampling of STS transfers located this month:

SUPER LADY Ship-to-Ship

The Sierra Leone-flagged tanker SUPER LADY engaged in an illicit STS of Iranian oil from the floating oil storage unit (FSU), Khalij-e-Fars on October 3, 2020. The FSU carries, which can hold 2.2 million-barrels, stores crude produced in the offshore Soroosh and Nowruz oil field in the Persian Gulf. Following UANI’s intervention, the Sierra Leone flag registry has dutifully initiated an investigation into this incident.

Suspected transfer of Iranian crude oil to SUPER LADY from Iran’s Floating Storage Unit, Khalij-e-Fars, on 10/3/2020. (Imagery By: Sentinel Hub)

ABYSS Ship-to-Ship

The Vietnamese-flagged tanker “ABYSS” engaged in an illicit transfer of Iranian oil from a National Iranian Tanker Company (“NITC”) vessel on October 30, 2020. A repeat offender, UANI first mentioned ABYSS in its December 2019 Tanker Tracking blog after ABYSS engaged in a STS with the NITC tanker ARGO 1 off Singapore's coast.

Suspected transfer of Iranian crude oil to ABYSS from NITC tanker, on 10/30/2020. (Imagery By: Planet Labs)

LPG Pickups from Assaluyeh

As well as crude, Iran also routinely engages in STS transfers of liquid petroleum gas (LPG), where it is initially uploaded from Assaluyeh, Iran. This month alone, UANI tracked five instances where a foreign vessel has picked up LPG from Assaluyeh and then transferred to another vessel for transit to China.

One of those instances involved the Tuvalu-flagged LPG tanker ARROW on October 2. Encouragingly, and following correspondence from UANI, the Tuvalu Ship Registry made the responsible decision to de-flag ARROW.

Foreign LPG tankers involved in a STS of LPG picked up from Iran’s Assaluyeh Port on 10/28/2020 (Imagery by: Sentinel Hub)

Beyond the illicit nature of transporting Iranian LPG, this maneuver is very risky due to the highly flammable fuel. In 2019, two ships (noted on a U.S. sanctions advisory for delivering fuel to Syria) engaged in a mid-sea fuel STS and caught fire in the Black Sea, leaving at least ten crew members dead.

UANI continues to track as many instances of illicit STS transfers as possible, as well as direct port-call pickups of sanctioned Iranian oil, LPG, and other banned petroleum and petrochemical products. Increasingly, the national maritime authorities that provide the ‘flags’ -- which are equivalent to shipping ‘passports’ for international travel – are responding positively by deregistering these vessels. The more that flag registries decline to register bad ships, the more difficult it will be for Iran to keep exporting and violating oil sanctions.