Cold Case: Thirteen (out of sixteen) mysterious foreign supertankers in Iran finally positively identified (updated 2020-08-26)

We have spent the past six months trying to figure out the identity of a red-decked VLCC supertanker that picked up oil via STS (Ship-to-Ship) transfer north of Lavan Island, Iran in late January. It was a very frustrating situation to be in given that there was no way to spot any matching vessels that had switched off their AIS transponder in or around the area. Over time, it became a cold case we called the A.R.T., short for “Annoying Red Tanker”. Once we finally figured her (LUBOV) out and her obfuscation technique, we were able to identify many additional vessels as they all employed the exact same technique to conceal themselves in open water.

After having consulted a trusted ring of colleagues in the maritime sector (who handle tracking, shipping, intelligence and security), we got a mixed result in whether or not we should go into detail about how these vessels avoided detection. Our fear is that this method (and how well it was organized and executed) would open up an entirely new can of worms for those tracking vessels for basic reasons, such as insurance. We have therefore decided not to detail how these vessels carried out their methods to obfuscate. We can however say that nearly all of them took place north of Lavan Island; an area that is certainly not in the purview of what trackers normally look at because it is not an export terminal or a designated STS area. It only became that as of August 2019, when we back-tracked and discovered the first sessions following the expiration of the oil sanction waivers at the start of May 2019.

All told, we have spotted 16 STS sessions, of which 13 have been positively identified by comparing satellite imagery at that location versus other locations while the vessels were pinging over AIS. We also used the MarineTraffic photo gallery to closely examine the decks of each vessel to make sure identities weren’t mistaken. The 3 vessels which haven’t been identified yet might in fact be NITC (National Iranian Tanker Company) vessels as we have not yet spotted any foreign candidates that match the criteria. We’ll see if we can figure them out.

Each of the 16 photos below were captured by Planet Labs PlanetScope (3 meters per pixel resolution)

UPDATED 2020-08-14: EKATERINA (row 9) delivered to Qingdao, China and ASTA (row 10).

UPDATED 2020-08-26: LUBOV (row 14) handed over her entire cargo to TRIDENT LIBERTY 3.2 nautical miles off Khor Fakkan, UAE.

News headline 2020-08-26: NBC: “Oil tankers stripped of flags after breaching U.S. sanctions to secretly ship Iranian oil”