US-Sanctioned Zombie Tanker Exposes Dark Trade Between Tehran And Beijing

A "zombie" tanker, disguised as a different ship, delivered 2 million barrels of Iranian oil to a government-run port in Shandong's ban on sanctioned ships. The tanker, Gather View, was actually a U.S.-sanctioned ship that had hijacked the identity of a scrapped vessel named Global. This clandestine maritime supply chain reveals Iran's increasingly desperate attempts to evade U.S. sanctions, Iranian oil continues to flow into China, despite the Trump administration's "maximum pressure" on Iran. The U.S. has sanctioned two small Chinese refineries, Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical and Shandong Shengxing Chemical, creating difficult operating conditions for them. Beijing has rejected unilateral sanctions and defends legitimate trade with Iran, which has become Iran's largest crude buyer. To evade sanctions, Iran has become creative, using tactics such as "zombie" tankers, which cannot match the pace of U.S. sanctions. This tactic is becoming more prevalent with foreign adversaries of the U.S., including Venezuela. Last month, Bloomberg exposed the rise of "zombie" oil tankers, cargo ships that hijack the identities of scrapped ships to evade U.S. sanctions. Iran needs to be creative to find new tankers, as the pace of U.S. sanctions cannot be matched. This clandestine maritime supply chain reveals the desperate attempts of Iran and China's "teapot" refiners to defy U.S. sanctions.