Tanker Tracking

On October 19, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice charged five Russian nationals and two oil traders over an alleged money laundering and global sanctions evasion scheme.

United Against Nuclear Iran’s (UANI’s) ship-tracking data and research shows that the Trump and Biden administrations had different impacts on Iran’s oil sector. The Trump administration sought to drive Iranian oil exports to zero and deprive the regime of a vital source of revenue. The Biden administration, by contrast, in focusing on negotiations to revive the nuclear deal, eased the pressure from sanctions via lax enforcement.

At a press briefing on September 26, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price was asked three times whether the U.S.

As a final nuclear deal creeps into view, many analysts predict an immediate boost to the global oil supply as Iranian crude comes back online. Some analysts estimate that “Iran has about 150 to 200 million barrels of crude and condensate floating on the water” which would become available almost immediately.  Meanwhile, a draft agreement would purportedly see the U.S.

Earlier this month, Iran’s Central Bank (CBI) reported a vast annual jump in oil revenues for the financial year ending March 2022.  Export revenues from oil, gas, and related by-products totaled $39 billion, compared to $22 billion for the previous year – a rise of 77% and an extra $17 billion. (Incidentally, the CBI’s figures are remarkably consistent with UANI’s own estimates based on our ship-tracking research.

In a welcome move on June 16, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned three major Iranian petrochemical producers, Marun Petrochemical, Kharg Petrochemical, and Fanavaran Petrochemical, for having supplied tens of millions of dollars’ worth of petrochemicals to the sanctioned Chinese company, Triliance.

A flurry of developments at the back-end of May suggests that the Biden team is finally starting to accept that it must confront the issue of Iranian oil exports – in word and deed.

Four years of UANI Tanker Tracker data are punctuated by three key dates, all leading to significant sustained changes in total Iranian oil exports when looking at all destinations: 1) May 8, 2018 (the announcement that the U.S. would withdraw from the JCPOA); 2) May 2, 2019 (the end of U.S. oil waivers on all countries), and; 3) January 21, 2021 (the start of the Biden Presidency).

II. Chinese Imports of Iranian Oil – Total

April marks the fourth anniversary of UANI’s Tanker Tracker. It draws on deep wells of HUMINT, satellite imagery, Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, cargo datasets, port documentation analysis, vessel identification, and other data triangulation.  Now regularly cited in specialist maritime and mainstream outlets, UANI provides the most accurate accounting of Iran’s oil exports.