Going dark, fake voyages: as US hits Iran and Venezuela with sanctions, here’s the tricks used to get around them
- Vanishing from tracking screens, clandestine transfers on the high seas and fake destinations are among some of the tactics used to hide the business from authorities
Ships vanishing from tracking screens, clandestine transfers on the high seas and fake destinations are among some of the tactics used to hide the business from authorities, according to analysts who track flows around the world. Here’s a description of how some of those tricks work.
Going Dark
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“With the world’s oceans so vast, satellite imagery can only look in so many places at once, despite the technological advances in recent years,’’ said Tom Kenison, an analyst at industry consultant FGE. It’s also weather dependent as heavy cloud cover can obscure the view, he said.
Ship-to-Ship Transfers
A method that often goes hand in hand with going dark. A first vessel will take its clandestine cargo away from the country in question before transferring it to a waiting ship, all of this happening out of sight. The vessels will then sail in different directions. For about a third of Iranian exports of crude and oil products, more than one tanker typically handles a load before it’s delivered to its final destination, said Ilya Niklyaev, an analyst at data intelligence firm Kpler SAS.
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Common locations for transfers are the Sharjah and Khor Fakkan anchorages off the United Arab Emirates, the Malacca Strait and Nipah anchorage off Indonesia and areas off Sri Lanka and the Maldives, according to Kpler and FGE. Tankers are also trying to be more discreet and are increasingly conducting transfers away from designated anchorages, FGE’s Kenison said.
Fake Destinations
Signalling the wrong destination to load or unload is another technique. Ships that intend to take cargoes from Iran may indicate their loading ports in sanction-free Qatar, Saudi Arabia or Iraq, while those vessels on their way to North Korea may show a port in northeast China as their landing point. Ships can keep changing their destinations and end up not berthing at any of them.
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Rebranded Barrels
Iranian barrels can also be rebranded as oil from a nation free from sanctions such as Iraq, according to FGE’s Kenison. The countries share fields along their border and the crude has similar characteristics. Oil from these deposits can be trucked out of the Persian Gulf state to another port and documents forged to hide Iran as the origin, he said. Still, there is a level of risk. Tests are typically carried out on the crude at the landing port and if the parameters don’t meet the contract specifications, the cargo can be rejected.
Some Shipments Are Still OK
