Suez Rajan cases raise questions over Iran’s crude dealings and US sanctions

… United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a non-profit group that tracks Tehran’s energy exports and tipped off officials to the Suez Rajan transfer, already had the Virgo on its radar when it delivered nearly 1m barrels to the suezmax last year. Chief of staff Claire Jungman, who leads the ship tracking programme, told TradeWinds the vessel is one of several that she watches every day. However, the VLCC is not listed on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) list of sanctioned vessels. That is despite the evidence of furtive cargo transfers and even though the US Treasury Department has labelled the shipping network of the Revolutionary Guards as “terror proxies” in 2019, and even though one shipping company has already admitted to taking cargo from the vessel while its location transponder was not broadcasting.