A US-sanctioned tanker blacklisted for handling Iranian liquefied petroleum gas crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, one of only a handful of vessels to make it through the waterway in recent days.
The Danuta I, a gas supertanker sailing under the flag of Palau, transited the strait in the early hours of Friday morning local time, according to ship-tracking data. The vessel had picked up a cargo from within the Persian Gulf, as seen from a draft increase.
As the very-large gas carrier was sailing inside the gulf and later, through the strait, its signalling pattern was inconsistent and haphazard at times, suggesting it turned off its transponders or issued inaccurate positioning signals to hide its path. Signal jamming, which is rampant in the region, may have contributed to this.
“The Strait of Hormuz is currently too risky for legitimate shipowners to cross from a commercial standpoint as well as for safety of crew, which explains the dozens of tankers stuck waiting within the Gulf and unable to exit,” said Charlie Brown, an advisor to United Against Nuclear Iran, a US lobby and pressure group focused on Tehran.
“Dark fleet or sanctioned tankers may take a calculated risk to sail through, possibly after communication with Iranian forces in the area,” he said.
The vessel’s owner, Panama-based Ithaki Maritime and Trading, doesn’t have a website, any online presence or any known method of contact, either via telephone or email, according to checks by Bloomberg.
Traffic in the strait has ground to a near-complete halt, the Bahrain-based Joint Maritime Information Center said in a note released early on Friday, before the Danuta I transit.
“We may see other dark fleet tankers emboldened to cross the strait after the successful voyage taken by Danuta I”, Brown said.
Bloomberg
