Esperanza, Kamari I: tranship Iran Oil

Esperanza

Kamari I

Vitol acquired the Iranian fuel oil early this month in a ship-to-ship transfer off Malaysia from a National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) vessel, the Leadership, onto a Vitol-chartered tanker, the Ticen Ocean. The Ticen Ocean was sub-contracted by Vitol for floating storage off the Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelepas from Titan Petrochemicals [TTNP 0.972 -0.008 (-0.82%) ], a Hong Kong company which itself hired it from shipowner Frontline [FRO 3.775 -0.105 (-2.71%) ] of Norway. Vitol, the world's largest oil trader, is buying and selling Iranian fuel oil, undermining Western efforts to choke the flow of petrodollars to Tehran and put pressure on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Vitol[ parent Vitol Holding B.V.] last month bought 2 million barrels of fuel oil, used for power generation, from Iran and offered it to Chinese traders, Vitol acquired Iranian fuel oil early this month in a ship-to-ship transfer off Malaysia from a National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) vessel, the Leadership, onto a Vitol-chartered tanker, the Ticen Ocean. The Ticen Ocean was sub-contracted by Vitol for floating storage off the Malaysian port of Tanjung Pelepas from Titan Petrochemicals, a Hong Kong company which itself hired it from shipowner Frontline of Norway. Frontline said Titan had told it the ship was not used to store Iranian oil. "Our only counterpart in this matter is Titan and they have said it is not correct that there has been Iranian oil on the boat," said Frontline CEO Jens Martin Jensen. The Leadership left Iran's main oil export terminal at Kharg Island during the week of August 23, passing through the Strait of Malacca before disappearing from freight tracking systems off the Malaysian coast on September 4. Since sanctions were imposed, Iranian vessels have frequently switched off the onboard 'black-box' transponders used in the shipping industry to monitor vessel movements. Industry sources in Tanjung Pelepas who monitor shipping transfer operations in Malaysian waters said Vitol later brought alongside another tanker, the Speranza, to replace the Ticen Ocean as floating storage. The Speranza, owned by China's Sino Shipping Holdings, arrived at Tanjung Pelepas on September 13-14, Reuters data shows. Vitol also transferred some of its fuel oil from the Ticen Ocean between September 11-12 to another vessel, the Kamari I, according to Reuters data. That cargo was delivered to Vitol's storage terminal on the Malaysian island of Tanjung Bin, inside Tanjung Pelepas port, one trading source said. Swiss-based Vitol [[parent Vitol Holding B.V.] is not obliged to comply with a ban imposed in July by the European Union on trading oil with Iran because Switzerland decided not to match EU and U.S. sanctions against Tehran. Ship info IMO number 9002609 Name of the ship SPERANZA Type of ship CRUDE OIL TANKER MMSI 353035000 Gross tonnage 158475 tons DWT 299700 tons Year of build 1993 Builder ODENSE STEEL SHIPYARD - ODENSE, DENMARK Flag PANAMA Class society KOREAN SHIPPING REGISTER Manager & owner SINO SHIPPING HOLDINGS - HONG KONG, CHINA Former names LA ESPERANZA (not yet confirmed) EHM MAERSK (not yet confirmed) BRITISH VALOUR (not yet confirmed) ELISABETH MAERSK (not yet confirmed)