Oil Smuggling News

Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA on Monday was loading a supertanker with crude and fuel for Cuba, maritime documents showed, an unusually large volume to help its political ally overcome an energy crisis with repeated blackouts.Several big electrical outages this year have left many in Cuba concerned about power supplies this summer, when residents crank up air conditioning to stay cool in the Caribbean heat.Cuban officials have blamed the intermittent power on difficulties processing heavy sour Cuban crude and fuel shortages on the island…

Iranian oil exports hit new highs in the last two months of 2022 and are making a strong start to 2023 despite U.S. sanctions, according to companies that track the flows, on higher shipments to China and Venezuela.Tehran's oil exports have been limited since former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018 exited a 2015 nuclear accord and reimposed sanctions aimed at curbing oil exports and the associated revenue to Iran's government.Exports have risen during the term of his successor President Joe Biden, who had sought to revive the nuclear deal, and hit the highest since 2019 on some estimates.

The European Union and the United States are now targeting maritime protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance clubs to limit Russian shipping capacity and cap the price of its oil, meaning we’re finally beginning to see some smart sanctions for a stupid war.P&I clubs are maritime insurance groups that specialize in open-ended, large-risk claims. P&I insurance is a requirement for all heavy cargo and container vessels. Under the new sanctions, European P&I clubs can no longer offer insurance to a vessel carrying Russian oil at a price higher than $60 a barrel.Since February 2022…

U.S.-sanctioned oil supertanker Young Yong is being towed to an anchorage area in Nipah, Indonesia, after the stranded tanker was successfully refloated, Commander of Indonesia's First Fleet Arsyad Abdullah said on Thursday. The tugboats that had surrounded the ship were also dispersing, data on Refinitiv Eikon and MarineTraffic website showed. On Refinitiv Eikon, Young Yong's status has been changed to "restricted manoeuvrability" from "aground", which would indicate the vessel is floating but that the crew does not have full control of the vessel. The United States allowed some transactions necessary to dock and anchor the Young Yong safely and make repairs as part of the efforts to free the vessel. The supertanker ran aground off Indonesia's Riau Islands on Oct. 26 near a gas pipeline.

The U.S. government has allowed some transactions to take place with a sanctioned oil supertanker in efforts to free the vessel stranded in Indonesian waters, the U.S. embassy in Singapore said on Wednesday. The Indonesian navy has been trying to free the Djibouti-registered ship, Young Yong, which ran aground off Indonesia's Riau Islands on Oct. 26 near a gas pipeline. The U.S. last week issued sanctions against an international oil smuggling network it said supports Hezbollah and Iran's elite Quds Force…

Indonesian authorities said on Monday it could take up to a month to free a crude oil tanker stuck in its waters, while the United States slapped sanctions on the vessel for alleged links to Hezbollah and a branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The Indonesian navy has been trying to free the Djibouti-registered vessel, Young Yong, which ran aground off Indonesia's Riau Islands on Oct. 26. The U.S. last week issued sanctions against an international oil smuggling network it said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force, targeting dozens of people, companies, and tankers as Washington sought to mount pressure on Tehran. The Young Yong was among the vessels sanctioned. U.S. embassy officials in Singapore and Jakarta did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Iranian forces seized two Greek tankers in the Gulf on Friday, Iranian state media reported, shortly after Tehran warned it would take "punitive action" against Athens over the confiscation of Iranian oil by the United States from a tanker held off the Greek coast."The Revolutionary Guards Navy today seized two Greek tankers for violations in Gulf waters," said a Guards statement, quoted by the state news agency IRNA.It gave no further details or say what the alleged violations were.Greek authorities last month impounded the Iranian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the coast of the southern island of Evia due to EU sanctions.The United States later confiscated the Iranian oil cargo held onboard and plans to send it to the United States on another vessel…

The United States has confiscated an Iranian oil cargo held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel, three sources familiar with the matter said.Greek authorities last month impounded the Iranian-flagged Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the coast of the southern island of Evia due to EU sanctions.They said the ship was impounded as part of EU sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. However…

China foiled criminals seeking to smuggle nearly 1 million tonnes of refined oil worth 5 billion yuan ($770 million), with officials seizing 11 ships and detaining 171 suspects in a sprawling swoop on Tuesday, customs authorities said.The operation, which saw customs officers from the port city of Ningbo join forces with local law enforcement and maritime police, spanned eight Chinese regions, including the coastal provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and Fujian, the General Administration of Customs said in a statement.A total of 14 gangs were busted on Tuesday, the agency added.

An Iranian container ship was damaged in an attack in the Mediterranean, the state-run shipping company said on Friday, adding it would take legal action to identify the perpetrators of what it called terrorism and naval piracy.The ship, Shahr e Kord, was slightly damaged in Wednesday’s incident by an explosive object which caused a small fire, but no one on board was hurt, the spokesman, Ali Ghiasian, said, according to state media.“Such terrorist acts amount to naval piracy…

Israel's navy could take action against Iranian oil smuggling, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday, urging world powers to foil any effort by Tehran to evade U.S. sanctions.The Israeli leader told naval officers that Iran was still resorting to clandestine measures to ship fuel that it first used prior to a 2015 nuclear deal easing Western sanctions on its oil sector.U.S. President Donald Trump last year quit the nuclear deal and reimposed some sanctions, aiming to cut Iran's oil exports to zero."Iran is trying to circumvent the sanctions through covert oil smuggling over maritime routes, and to the extent that these attempts widen…

Begun in 1918 by British troops, Basra's shipyard is surviving into old age with little maintenance, relying on its vintage machinery and the skill of its workers to keep going.Thousands of ships, including former dictator Saddam Hussein's yacht, have passed through the Iraqi shipyard's three docks, where a giant steam engine hauls them out of the water and up the century-old wooden tracks.There are no spare parts and no written manuals.Mohammed Adnan, who has been operating the huge steam engine for six years now, says it is not easy. It requires expertise and intuition to maintain the right pressure in the boilers, and to prevent the engine from overheating."British manufacturing is great quality ...

Maldives on Wednesday denied a Japanese foreign ministry statement that said a Maldives-flagged vessel was used to illegally transfer goods from a North Korean-flagged tanker in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. The Japanese statement said the "Chon Ma San", designated by the United States as a sanctions target, was spotted by a surveillance plane with the Maldivian-flagged tanker "Xin Yuan 18" some 250 km (160 miles) east of Shanghai on Saturday. It said "Japan strongly suspects that the vessels conducted ship-to-ship transfers" banned by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

A court in Taiwan has released on bail a man prosecutors allege to have made false declarations in the case of a Hong Kong-flagged tanker suspected of transferring oil to North Korea in violation of international sanctions. The man, surnamed Chen, said the vessel was bound for Hong Kong, despite knowing it was bound for international waters to traffic oil products, the prosecutors' office in the southern city of Kaohsiung said on Wednesday. "The suspicion of crime is great," it said in a statement…

Libyan naval forces captured two vessels suspected of smuggling oil from the North African country after gun battles lasting several hours west of the capital Tripoli, a spokesman for the service said on Friday. Libyan forces frequently capture vessels smuggling oil and arms off the coast and the North African state has become a haven for migrant smugglers who take advantage of the country's turmoil to ship people across to Europe. Ayoub Qassem, a spokesman for the Libyan naval forces, said Ukraine-flagged tanker Routa and a vessel with an unspecified African nation's flag named Stark were captured early Friday. "Clashes lasted for three hours, but the two tankers were successfully seized," Qassem said. The incident occurred in the Sidi Said area west of Tripoli.

The Obama administration on Thursday threatened to slap sanctions on anyone buying oil from Islamic State militants in an effort to disrupt what it said was a $1-million-a-day funding source. Islamic State has seized large swaths of Iraq and Syria in a brutal campaign, and could pose a threat to the United States and its allies if it is not stopped, U.S. Treasury Undersecretary David Cohen said. "With the important exception of some state-sponsored terrorist organizations, ISIL is probably the best-funded terrorist organization we have confronted," Cohen said, referring to another name for Islamic State. He spoke at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Iraqi Oil Minister Amir Muhammed Rasheed said that oil prices were not too high and accused the United States of overreacting to the rally. Rasheed also said that Iraq might further reduce its oil exports if spare parts bought under its oil-for-food deal remained in hold. "We think prices now are not too high," Rasheed said. "The prices should be normally around $25 to $27 and I am talking about OPEC oil basket prices. We are surprised by the overreaction of the administration in the United States to the prices. We see in this respect still a double-standard," he said. The OPEC basket price of seven crudes has averaged $25.40 a barrel so far this year with last week's average at $27.30. Rasheed said Iraq had to reduce its oil exports, "from mid- December ...

An Iranian team on Monday stopped an oil leak from a ship that sank in the Gulf last week while apparently smuggling Iraqi fuel oil, a regional marine body said. The Bahrain-based Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Centre (MEMAC) said the holes through which oil was leaking from the Honduras-flagged Georgios had been closed, limiting the environmental risk, and a Kuwaiti team had helped control the oil slick by using dispersants. "We can say now that the danger is over," MEMAC's director, Captain Abdul Munem al-Janahi said, estimating that half of the 1,900 tons of oil the ship was carrying may have leaked out. "The Iranian team is using under-water cameras to take shots of the ship's position to help study the best way to salvage it," he said.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the U.S. Navy is investigating the possibility that the crew of an Iraqi oil-smuggling ship had intentionally damaged the ship, resulting in its sinking and the death of two U.S. sailors. Last month the USS Peterson was in charge of the suspected smuggling vessel Samra when it suddenly sank, taking with it two U.S. sailors and four Iraqi seamen.

The United Arab Emirates, battling one of the worst oil spills to affect its coastline in years, reportedly has stepped up measures against tankers smuggling Iraqi oil in defiance of a U.N. embargo. The UAE decision comes after a sanctions-busting Iraqi tanker, the Zainab, sank off the coast of Dubai, causing an oil slick that has spread to the country's northern shores. The tanker, which was carrying 1,300 tons of fuel oil, was one of two ships seized in UAE waters last week after they were intercepted by a multinational sanctions-enforcing force. Minister of State for Foreign Affairs said that a special committee that the sanction-busting ships would be confiscated and their owners prosecuted.

The USS Fort McHenry arrived off the coast of West Africa in November to lead an international team of experts that will train African sailors to confront the daily challenges of illegal fishing, piracy, drug trafficking and oil smuggling. The amphibious ship is the centerpiece of the new Africa Partnership Station (APS) initiative. During its seven-month deployment, it will serve as a floating platform in the strategically important Gulf of Guinea, where it will promote regional maritime safety and security. The West Africa program is modeled on a successfully completed Global Fleet Station mission in the Caribbean that helped promote port security and stronger borders in Belize, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua and Panama.