Evidence of Iran breaking US oil sanctions
Claim fuel oil cargo transshipped at sea before delivery in Singapore
TRIPOLI: At least two tankers have ferried Iranian fuel oil to Asia in recent months, despite United States sanctions against such shipments, according to a Reuters analysis of shiptracking data and port information, as well as interviews with brokers and traders.
The shipments were loaded on to tankers with documents showing the fuel oil was Iraqi. But three Iraqi oil industry sources and Prakash Vakkayil, a manager at United Arab Emirates (UAE) shipping services firm Yacht International Co, said the papers were forged.
The people said they did not know who forged the documents, nor when.
The transfers show at least some Iranian fuel oil is being traded, despite the reimposition of sanctions in November 2018, as Washington seeks to pressure Iran into abandoning nuclear and missile programmes. They
also show how some traders have revived tactics that were used to skirt sanctions against Iran between 2012 and 2016.
‘‘Some buyers . . . will want Iranian oil, regardless of US strategic objectives to deny Teheran oil revenue, and Iran will find a way to keep some volumes flowing,’’ Peter Kiernan, lead energy analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit, said.
While the United States has granted eight countries temporary waivers allowing limited purchases of Iranian crude oil, these exemptions do not cover products refined from crude, including fuel oil, mainly used to power the engines of large ships.
Documents forwarded to Reuters by ship owners say a 300,000 tonnesupertanker, Grace 1, took on fuel oil at Basra, Iraq, between December 10 and 12 last year. But Basra port loading schedules reviewed by Reuters do not list Grace 1 as being in port during those dates.
One Iraqi industry source with knowledge of the port’s operations confirmed there were no records of Grace 1 at Basra during this period.
Reuters examined data from four shiptracking information providers — Refinitiv, Kpler, IHS Markit and Vessel Finder — to locate Grace 1 during that time. All four showed that Grace 1 had its Automatic Identification System (AIS), or transponder, switched off between November 30 and December 14, 2018, meaning its location could not be tracked.
Grace 1 then reappeared in waters near Iran’s port of Bandar Assaluyeh, fully loaded, data showed. The cargo was trans ferred to two smaller ships in UAE waters in January, from where one ship delivered fuel oil to Singapore in February.
Shipping documents showed about 284,000 tonnes of fuel oil was transferred in the cargoes tracked by Reuters, worth about $US120 million ($NZ174.24 million) at current prices.
Officials at Iran’s oil ministry declined to comment.
Singapore customs did not respond to requests for comment.
The shiptracking data analysed by Reuters showed Grace 1 emerged from the period when it did not transmit its location almost 500km south of Iraq.
It was close to the Iranian coast and its draught — how deep a vessel sits in water — was near maximum, indicating its cargo tanks were filled.
Grace 1 transferred its cargo to two smaller tankers between January 16 and 22, in waters off Fujairah in the UAE, data showed.
One of those vessels, the 130,000 tonnecapacity Kriti Island, offloaded fuel oil into a storage terminal in Singapore about February 5 to 7. Reuters was unable to determine who bought the fuel oil for storage in Singapore.
Kriti Island is managed by Greece’s Avin International SA and was chartered by Singaporebased Blutide Pte Ltd for its voyage to Singapore, Avin International’s chief executive officer George Mylonas said. He confirmed Kriti Island took on fuel oil from Grace 1.
There is no indication that Avin International knowingly shipped Iranian fuel oil. Mylonas emailed a copy of a Certificate of Origin (COO) that he said was provided by the charterers, showing Grace 1 loaded fuel oil at Basra on December 10 and 12, 2018. — Reuters