Tanker That Had Illicitly Transported Iranian Oil to be Scrapped in India

SEATTLE (Oil Monster): Bloomberg reports that a very large crude carrier (VLCC) that had been used to transport sanctioned oil on behalf of Iran as part of a Dark Tanker fleet has been brought to a shipbreaking yard in India for eventual scrapping.

The Cameroon-flagged Amor is the first VLCC to be sold for scrapping in just over two years since August 2022, when the 299,000DWT Uranus was handed over to breakers in Bangladesh. Uranus had been flagged for flag-hopping and was also used for illicit trade in Iranian oil in addition to transporting oil from Venezuela.

The Dark Tanker Fleet has been defined by the US Department of the Treasury as “older vessels that are anonymously owned and/or have opaque corporate structures that are solely deployed in the trade of sanctioned oil or oil products and engage in various deceptive shipping practices.”

The 24-year-old Amor was included by the US Energy Information Administration in an October 2024 list of vessels involved in the transport of Iranian crude.

The exact reasons for the owners’ decision to sell the VLCC for scrapping remain unclear, though the sale came at nearly the same time as the imposition of tighter restrictions by the West on Dark Fleet operators.

Courtesy: www.bairdmaritime.com