UANI’s Shipping Campaign Roundup
Iranian Oil Trafficking Updates from United Against Nuclear Iran
In a blockbuster story on June 19, the Daily Mail reported that in the past year, Iran has almost doubled its fleet sailing under other countries’ flags to 123 in the past year, a ‘ghost armada’ of sanctions-busting tankers that are smuggling up to a million barrels of oil a day to China. “US sanctions designed to stop Iran financing international terrorism and developing its nuclear programme ban the Middle East state from selling oil abroad. But China has flouted the ban and increased its secret dealings at sea over the past six months to help bankroll Iran’s nuclear activity, according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an international not-for-profit group led by former US ambassador to the UN Mark Wallace. It used satellite imagery and round-the-clock tracking to monitor the illicit trade. China was reportedly buying an average of 700,000 barrels of illegal Iranian oil a day up to April, peaking at a million barrels, making it Tehran’s main customer. Ghost armada ships carrying 18 million barrels are currently thought to be in the South China Sea. Between February and May, UANI successfully applied for seven ships in the fleet, which includes 20 supertankers able to carry more than two million barrels of oil, to have their flags deregistered after alerting national authorities and insurers.” UANI senior adviser Sir Ivor Roberts noted that if only a sixth of the 123 tankers evaded detection and completed a shipment each week, Iran would be exporting 2.4 million barrels a day – 300,000 more than before sanctions were reimposed in 2018. “He added: The volume of black-market oil China is buying from Iran is staggering. That gives the regime in Tehran the foreign currency it needs to build up its reserves, ramp up its nuclear programme in the face of international sanctions and pursue its terror-sponsoring agenda abroad.” Additional coverage of Iran’s illegal oil smuggling to China was provided by The Sun on June 20.
UANI IS DISRUPTING THE BLACK MARKET ON IRANIAN OIL
Illicit Iranian-Chinese Oil Trafficking Threatens U.S. Credibility
For more than two years, UANI Chief of Staff Claire Jungman and Research Director Daniel Roth have been documenting the illegal and clandestine export of Iranian crude oil and other petroleum products and the techniques used to frustrate sanctions enforcement. Roth and Jungman have documented dozens of often dangerous ‘ship to ship’ (STS) transfers used to mask the identity of Iranian oil and have thwarted a number of STS transfers in real time. While all ships of a certain length are required to transmit their locations with onboard transponders continuously, the tankers involved in smuggling Iranian oil regularly switch off (‘go dark’) for extended periods, and use a technique known as “spoofing,” or GPS manipulation, to hide their movements.
Writing in the Washington Times on April 12, Roth and Jungman note that in the first three months of the Biden Administration, record amounts of Iranian oil furtively made its way to China, threatening American credibility. “By tracking vessels from point-to-point, however, it has become clear that “Malaysian” oil being offloaded in Chinese ports is actually Iranian in origin. Likewise, just as China has gamed the system, the same data reveals discrepancies in Malaysia’s maritime reports, which are often falsified to maintain the secrecy of the source country. Any and all vessels carrying this cloaked cargo ought to be individually sanctioned by the Biden administration as a first step, to be followed by a clear signal to President Xi Jinping that he is further imperiling his most critical trading relationship for the small, short-term gain from importing Iranian crude. Hundreds of billions of dollars in U.S. tariffs against China aren’t going away any time soon, but if China persists in its sanctions-busting schemes, they could become a permanent fixture.”
Iran’s Oil Exports Rise as U.S. Looks to Rejoin Nuclear Accord
A May 18 New York Times article notes that, consistent with UANI estimates, Iranian oil exports have been rising and “sharply increased last winter, the data show, after the November elections.” The article maintains that “Iran and its oil buyers may be betting that any penalties they may face are worth the risk as the Biden administration works to rejoin the nuclear deal that Mr. Trump jettisoned in May 2018.” The article notes that much of Iran’s crude oil exports are going to oil refineries in China. “A separate analysis, compiled by the private advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, a critic of the 2015 nuclear accord, also indicated that the vast majority of Iran’s crude and condensate oil exports has headed to China since last October. The group estimated that Iran exported 993,000 barrels per day in March to China, but that dipped to 448,000 barrels per day in April. Importers in Syria appeared to buy the second-highest number of barrels, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, the group’s analysis found.” And while the article goes on to question the effectiveness of unilateral sanctions, former UANI Advisory Board member Elliott Abrams, who oversaw sanctions against Iran in the Trump administration, noted that enforcement penalties denied “revenues worth tens of billions of dollars to Tehran, limiting how much support Iran could devote to its nuclear and military programs, including its proxy forces across the Middle East.”
Iran’s ‘Rogue Armada’ of Sanctions-Skirting Tankers Revealed
UANI’s campaign documenting the expanding fleet of large rogue oil tankers enabling the illegal shipment of Iranian oil was the subject of an in-depth Lloyd’s List article published on April 19. “The Washington DC-based United Against Nuclear Iran says the 115 vessels are distinct from the state-owned Iranian fleet of tankers, but are performing the same role as they exploit regulatory loopholes to ship millions of barrels of Iranian oil.” In November 2020, UANI published a list of 70 ships deployed on sanctioned trades and involved in the practice of flag-hopping. The Lloyd’s List article states that China is projected to import without penalty between 1.1 million and 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian-origin crude in April, using the listed tankers, higher than throughout 2020, when estimates were between 400,000 and 600,000 bpd. “Frequently changing registries is one of many tactics used to avoid detection, with smaller flags from impoverished African countries or poorer Caribbean or Pacific regions targeted because of their low oversight and lack of maritime technical expertise. Of the tankers on the UANI list, 37% are flagged with Panama.” The article notes that UANI sent Panama 10 letters in eight months, resulting in three of 46 vessels of concern having their flags withdrawn. “Flag hopping is a blight on legitimate maritime commerce,” said UANI.
May 2021 Iran Tanker Tracking: Some Maritime Authorities Take Action
UANI Chief of Staff Claire Jungman and Research Director Daniel Roth report a drop in Iranian exports of oil and gas from 1.2 million to 900,000 barrels per day (bpd) in May and note that maritime entities appear to have played their part. “In the wake of UANI’s Stop the Hop 2.0 blog on April 16, which highlighted a fleet of 100+ suspect tankers, numerous flag, insurance and classification authorities have stepped up and taken action on many of these identified vessels.” They cite numerous examples, among them: On May 27, the Zanzibar Maritime Authority confirmed the vessel PHOENIX (IMO: 9181194) was de-registered from its registry. UANI estimates that PHOENIX has transported over 6,000,000 barrels of Iranian oil since May 2019. On May 18, the Republic of Gabon deleted the vessel UMM HABAYEB (IMO: 9192260) from its registry after UANI revealed it was spoofing its AIS transponder to appear as if it was in the Persian Gulf when it was actually at an Iranian port. This vessel, formerly known as BLUE PEARL, was also de-flagged by the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP) in February 2021. Panama also revoked the flag for the crude oil tanker ORABELLA (IMO: 9174660). Furthermore, the Russian P&I club Ingosstrakh revoked the insurance coverage for five vessels that UANI flagged for its review. One of these vessels, the Russian-flagged crude oil tanker, LADY D (IMO: 9256858) engaged in its eighth transfer of Iranian crude oil on May 17, 2021.
IRANIAN TERROR IS FUNDED BY ILLEGAL OIL SALES
The Role of Classification Societies in Stopping Maritime Malpractice
In a May 19 blog, UANI Chief of Staff Claire Jungman and Research Director Daniel Roth highlight the importance of ship classification societies – which certify a vessel’s seaworthiness – in cracking down on ships that disable their Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracking satellites, an everyday occurrence in the context of illegal Iranian oil shipping. Overall, UANI’s campaign has led to the ‘declassification’ of 29 tankers identified as suspected of shipping Iranian cargo. Yet despite having their class withdrawn or suspended, these same tankers continue to traverse international waters. “Classification societies need to start working in unison. Otherwise, ‘classification-hopping,’ like ‘flag-hopping,’ will be the inevitable upshot. Indeed, just as we have encouraged flag registries to make public the information they have relating to vessels that seek to support the Iranian regime, we encourage classification societies to do the same. Clearly, it is unfair that only some societies take the responsible route to declassify vessels that are switching off tracking satellites against all maritime rules, while the others among them simply pick up the business and enable the regime to continue exporting its most lucrative yet illicit resource around the world.”
April 2021 Iran Tanker Tracking: The Real Story Behind the Drop in Iranian Oil Exports to China
UANI Chief of Staff Claire Jungman and Research Director Daniel Roth note that in April, Iran exported almost 500,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) to China, a drop of almost 50 percent from March totals. What happened? “The answer is not due to any reduction in Beijing’s appetite for Iranian crude - far from it. In large measure, the explanation is logistics. Iran has been using the same fleet of tankers to shuttle its oil from Iran to China, although many of the tankers themselves rarely make it all the way to the ports and refineries that dot the southeast Chinese mainland. Rather, once arriving in the South China Sea, a crude-laden tanker from Iran will often wait for another vessel to join, and then both will engage in a ship-to-ship (“STS”) transfer. The second uploading vessel will then voyage on to China and offload the oil. However, due to natural customer apprehension surrounding sanctions risks, finding a suitable recipient can frequently take many days, even weeks. Indeed, many of the same tankers which loaded Iranian oil in March are today still waiting to offload at Chinese ports, even more than a month later.
Thus, there are inevitable time-lags from initial loading in Iran to final offloading in China. As more of the waiting tankers find partner-ships and customers, we would expect figures for next month to return to the higher figure approaching 1 million bpd, other things being equal.” Jungman and Roth observe that since May 2019, five very large crude oil tankers, ETHAN (IMO: 9293741), LAVAL (IMO: 9246279), ELVA (IMO: 919[1]6644), LAKA (IMO: 9203253), and ERMIS (IMO: 9203265), have carried a combined total of more than 57 million barrels of Iranian oil, “bringing Iran an estimated $3,711,840,000 for which it, in turn, uses to fund its terrorist activities and regional expansion.”
Guyana checks Winsome ways of Iran-linked tanker
On June 21, Lloyd’s List reported that Guyana’s maritime registry, based on information provided by UANI, is investigating the activities of the oil tanker WINSOME (IMO: 9192260), which became a Guyanan-flagged vessel earlier in the month. “It (UANI) has engaged in an extensive letter-writing campaign to flag registries, insurers and classification societies in order to expose the subterfuge fleet of tankers that are shipping Iranian energy commodities.” The article noted that flag-hopping - the repeated changing of registries, is a tactic used by tanker owners to evade regulatory scrutity and is considered a key deceptive shipping practice by the U.S. “As much as 75% of tonnage identified by Lloyd's List as evading US sanctions and shipping cargoes of Iranian or Venezuelan crude is flagged with these registries. Guyana joins Belize, Cameroon, Comoros, Cook Islands, Djibouti, Palau, Samoa, São Tomé & Príncipe, Sierra Leone, St Kitts and Nevis, Tanzania, Gabon, Honduras, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau and Togo as registering tankers used in sanctions-skirting trades.”
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Eye on Iran is a news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), a section 501(c)(3) organization. Eye on Iran is available to subscribers on a daily basis or weekly basis.