Iran delivers oil to China using a zombie ship: What is known

According to tracking systems, at the end of April, a tanker named Global unloaded about 2 million barrels of Iranian oil at a port controlled by the Chinese provincial authorities.

However, in reality, it was the sanctioned supertanker Gather View, which was posing as a decommissioned vessel to conceal the origin of the cargo. This is the first documented case where a zombie vessel entered such a port after the January ban on servicing sanctioned ships.

This indicates the lengths to which Tehran and independent Chinese refineries are going to maintain their profitable trade.

Oil supplies to China are crucial for Iran and private refineries in Shandong province. Previously, the origin of the oil was masked by transshipment between vessels near Malaysia.

However, increased scrutiny by the United States and China at the beginning of the year made this route more complicated, prompting traders to turn to private ports in China and use smaller, less conspicuous tankers.

Nevertheless, the delivery of 2 million barrels of oil on a sanctioned supertanker to a state-owned port breaks the usual caution of traders. It is a highly risky operation: if uncovered, the cargo worth about 120 million dollars could be confiscated, and the port itself risks facing secondary US sanctions, as happened with a terminal in southern China in March.

So-called zombie vessels, which disguise themselves as decommissioned tankers, have long been a tool for circumventing sanctions, including in trade with Venezuela.

US sanctions against Iran and beyond

In March, Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration was ready to impose sanctions against Iran, particularly on Iranian oil extraction.

It was also previously revealed that the US had imposed sanctions on China for the first time. The reason was that the country purchased oil that is under US sanctions.