Venezuela mimics Iranian sanction-evasion tactics

Catogory : Market Report

IRAN remains undeterred by unilateral US sanctions on its crude exports, with a shipment of oil currently heading for Syria after a ship-to-ship transfer eight days ago. But it seems Venezuelan vessels may now be using similar methods in the same area off Malaysia to disguise the origin and destination of their cargoes to China. The suezmax tanker Masal, owned by the National Iranian Tanker Company, transferred its 1m barrel cargo of oil to an undisclosed ship on July 11, while at anchor in waters in the Red Sea near the Suez Canal, vessel-tracking data shows. A week earlier, Gibraltar had detained the Iranian controlled very large crude carrier, Grace 1, with its 2m barrel cargo of Iranian crude bound for Syria. The vessel Masal is one of four tankers known to have shipped Iranian crude to Syria in the past three months, as US sanctions restrict Iranian shipments and force vessels to deploy tactics to escape detection and avoid scrutiny. All Syrian-bound vessels turn off their automatic identification system responders during the STS transfer and afterwards, while sailing, making it difficult to immediately identify the tanker that took the cargo. The vessel joins the NITC-owned Sylvia I, now heading for Syria without any AIS signal after exiting the Suez Canal .Iran is using its own fleet of NITC tankers, which include as many as 36 VLCCs and suezmaxes to lift crude, turning off AIS transponders that transmit vessel location while loading, and also during ship-to-ship transfers to obfuscate the destination and origin. A further flotilla of Chinese-owned fleets of at least six VLCCs, plus several suezmaxes and six product tankers is also deploying the same strategy to ship condensate and crude to Chinese ports.