US blacklists tanker shipowner as VLCC with $100m cargo heads to China

"The ship’s flag state Panama was told about the suspected involvement of the ship in the Iranian oil trade in May 2023 by the campaign group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which tracks the Iranian tanker trade. In a letter to flag administrators, UANI said the ship, then named Irises and owned and operated by Iridescent, was involved the previous month in a ship-to-ship transfer of Iranian oil with another VLCC, the Suriname-owned 300-000-dwt Vigor (built 2004). The Vigor in return received the oil from an Iranian tanker, said UANI. The group claimed that the tanker was also linked to the transport of Venezuelan crude, a trade that had been blacklisted by the United States."