Stop the Hop

Over the past 12 months, UANI has unearthed dozens of cases of foreign tankers in illegal clandestine operations, designed to help Iran skirt oil sanctions.

These findings have been presented to the world’s “flag registries,” which grant the licenses required for any large vessel to make international voyages.

The flag registries have stepped up.

They have launched investigations, conducted hearings, published new banned vessel lists for information sharing, and de-flagged vessels altogether.

Among the 70 pinpointed vessels, for instance, UANI identified Comoros-flagged “ELLA IX” receiving oil in a ‘ship-to-ship’ (STS) transfer with the blacklisted Iranian tanker “ARGO 1” on July 24, in the north-eastern sector of the Persian Gulf.

Despite intentionally disabling their satellite systems to hide the two vessels’ identities and locations, UANI successfully detected, tracked, and exposed this illicit operation.

After receiving this information, Comoros correctly deflagged ELLA IX. Many other responsible flag registries, including Gabon, Mongolia, Tuvalu, and St. Kitts & Nevis, have likewise deflagged vessels when shown UANI research.

These are critical developments.

Between one-third to one half of Iran’s oil is exported via furtive STS transfers, loaded from Iranian to foreign tankers in the open seas, away from terrestrial tracking.

It must be stopped.

And with every responsible international registry that deflags a bad ship, the number of available flag options available narrows.

By meticulously tracking and alerting the registries of suspicious STS activity, UANI is slowly but surely turning the screws on this massive, lucrative sanctions hole.

Nonetheless, while the flag registries are doing their part, they need support. Too often, a vessel simply ‘hops’ from one flag to the next, and to the next.

Sanctioning agencies, notably the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), should individually designate the vessels and/or their owners/operators as a complementary remedy to address ‘flag-hopping.’

Below is a chart showing the 70 vessels UANI has investigated between November 2019 to November 2020.