Iranian state media posted a video on Friday that appeared to show Iran’s Navy seizing an oil tanker identified as the Ocean Koi.
The vessel was “exploiting the conditions in the region to harm and disrupt oil exports and the interests of the Iranian nation,” the state news agency IRNA said. The tanker, carrying Iranian oil, was escorted to Iran’s southern coast. Shipping analysts said that the tanker was Chinese-owned.
On Feb. 25 the U.S. Treasury Department identified the vessel as part of a shadow fleet of ships that it said Iran used in violation of U.S. sanctions.
TankerTrackers, a maritime data company, said Friday that the Chinese-owned tanker has been named the Jin Li since Nov. 30 and that it has transported Iranian hydrocarbons at least 16 times since 2021. Half of the ship’s loadings were at Iranian ports and the other half consisted of ship-to-ship oil transfers, the company said.
“Given the vessel’s established history within the Iranian trade ecosystem, this seizure appears to be a performative move likely intended to project regional authority or obscure deeper cooperation,” according to Windward AI, a maritime tracking company.
There are some 1,600 ships stranded in the Persian Gulf following Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz after the country was attacked on Feb. 28 by the United States and Israel. A U.S. blockade, which began last month, has also impeded the number of ships able to make it out into the Gulf of Oman. Ships that have gotten through have taken steps such as turning off their tracking devices to evade detection. It’s also not uncommon for ships to change their names.
Before the war, about 130 vessels passed through the strait each day.
Jenny Gross writes about business and economics for The New York Times and is based in London.
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