Iran Smuggles 1.7 Million Barrels of Oil Daily Using 'Ghost Fleet'

A tanker tracking company reports that Iran has the largest global share of oil smuggling, with 1.7 million barrels of oil and petroleum products being transited daily using a 'ghost fleet.' The ghost fleet refers to tankers that secretly deliver oil cargoes by turning off their automatic identification systems and employing various methods, including multiple cargo transfers in the ocean to other tankers and altering documents and oil brands. The company 'TankerTrackers' stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that last year Iran sent approximately 1.5 million barrels of oil (crude oil, gas condensate, and liquefied gas) to China, 200,000 barrels (fuel oil or mazut) to the UAE, and 70,000 barrels of crude oil to Syria daily. In total, over 1.7 million barrels per day of Iranian oil and petroleum products were transported through the ghost fleet last year, surpassing the total clandestine oil transit of Russia and Venezuela. The only customers for Iran's crude oil and gas condensate are China and Syria, while the UAE purchases Iran's fuel oil (mazut). Iran also exports liquefied gas (propane and butane) to China. Previously, the commodity information company, Kpler, told Radio Farda that Iran exported about 240,000 barrels of mazut and 1.324 million barrels of crude oil and gas condensate last year. Official Iranian statistics indicate that last year, 6.5 million tons (140,000 barrels per day) of liquefied gas were exported to China. The United Against Nuclear Iran organization estimated Iran's total oil exports last year at 1.46 million barrels per day and reported that 400 ships from the ghost fleet involved in Iran's clandestine oil transport have been identified. TankerTrackers also noted that the U.S. Treasury Department has only added one-third of the so-called 'ghost fleet' ships to its blacklist so far. More than half of Iran's oil is sent to Malaysia, labeled as oil from that country, and then delivered to small Chinese refineries known as 'teapots.' The rest of Iran's oil is rebranded through intermediaries in Oman, the UAE, Iraq, and other countries before being sent to China. Bloomberg reported that Iran sells the cheapest oil to China. For instance, Chinese customs statistics show that in July this year, China imported 1.53 million barrels of oil daily from Malaysia, a figure that is three times Malaysia's total oil production, and the volume of oil delivered to China under the name of Malaysian oil is 12 times the amount of Malaysia's oil exports to China before U.S. sanctions against Iran. In Chinese customs data, the amount of oil imported from Iran is reported as 'zero,' indicating that if true, all of Iran's oil reaches China under the names of other countries. According to Kpler statistics, in the first seven months of this year, Iran sent 1.488 million barrels of oil daily to China, and as of a week ago, the Islamic Republic had 17 million barrels of oil cargo reserves in tankers anchored in the Persian Gulf or around China. The energy consulting firm, Vortexa, also told Radio Farda that in the first seven months of this year, China received at least 1.2 million barrels of Iranian oil daily.