Is Iran working around US sanctions? Iran has started shifting to smaller and more agile tankers — specifically Aframax and Suezmax vessels — to transport its crude to China on the back of ramped up US sanctions on its oil trade operations, Bloomberg reports, citing ship-tracking Kpler data and several shipping industry experts and traders. Smaller vessels — known for their ability to discharge oil at shallower berths — allow Iran to expand its supply operations to smaller, less well-known ports that usually have shallow berths like in China’s port city Dongying, which is becoming popular as a destination for Iranian and Russian shipments.

Why shallow berths? Ports with shallow berths are generally less scrutinized and are also less wary of US sanctions, Bloomberg reports.

Iran is also using ship-to-ship transfers at locations, such as Malaysia and the UAE’s Fujairah, to mask the source of shipments, Bloomberg reports. Last month, Iranian oil exports to China surged to 1.7 mn barrels per day (bpd), up 86% from the previous month after the country reportedly ramped up ship-to-ship transfers.

REMEMBER- Iran’s oil operation is under pressure: The US is attempting to put “ maximumpressure ” on Iran in a bid to curtail its alleged pursuit of a nuclear weapon, with the latest two sanctions rounds targeting 100 out of 150 tankers and over 30 entities involved in shipping Iranian oil. Furthermore, more of the tankers involved in moving sanctioned oil globally are switching to Russia for its higher freight rates.

Iran’s oil exports — now estimated at 1.5 mn bpd — could be cut by one-third by May or June as a result of tightening sanctions and rising competition with Venzuela and Russia over tankers moving sanctioned oil, Kpler estimates.

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