The clerical dictatorship ruling Iran continues to use a covert “ghost fleet” of tankers to smuggle oil, exploiting clandestine operations to bypass international sanctions and fund the regime. According to oil analytics firm TankerTrackers’s findings, as well as other sources, the regime currently leads the world in the use of this “ghost fleet,” with about 1.7 million barrels of oil and oil products being transported daily in this manner.
The term “ghost fleet” refers to ships that turn off their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transponders, effectively disappearing from tracking systems to carry out clandestine activities. These vessels often engage in ship-to-ship transfers in the open ocean, rebranding cargoes and altering documents to obscure the origin of the oil. Reports indicate that the Iranian regime uses this strategy extensively to smuggle oil primarily to China, the United Arab Emirates, and Syria, with China being the largest buyer.
In 2023, TankerTrackers reported that Iran used its ghost fleet to export approximately 1.5 million barrels of crude oil, gas, and condensates to China daily, along with 200,000 barrels of fuel oil to the UAE and 70,000 barrels of crude to Syria. This volume increased to around 1.7 million barrels per day in 2024, surpassing the illicit oil transport activities of other sanctioned countries like Venezuela and Russia.
This is how the oil tanker Dark Fleet is being utilized. These stats reflect on the past year's average and are stated in bpd (barrels per day).
– Iran to China: 1,504,054
– Russia to India: 390,148
– Russia to China: 366,589
– Venezuela to China: 325,474
– Iran to UAE: 200,992… pic.twitter.com/8beBJ8v2x4— TankerTrackers.com, Inc. (@TankerTrackers) September 3, 2024
The organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) has identified about 400 tankers involved in Iran’s clandestine oil shipments. Despite these revelations, the U.S. Treasury Department has blacklisted only a third of these vessels. Most of Iran’s smuggled oil is rebranded as coming from countries like Malaysia before being sold to Chinese refineries. Chinese customs data suggests a sharp increase in imports labeled as Malaysian oil, with imports in July 2024 hitting 1.53 million barrels per day—three times Malaysia’s production capacity.
Despite Tehran’s increased exports, the revenue from these clandestine activities is far from transparent. Iran’s crude/condensate exports have increased significantly in 2024. According to Vortexa, Iran exported an average of 1.56 million barrels per day from January to May 2024, which is about 250,000 barrels per day higher than both Kuwait and Nigeria. In May 2024, Iran’s exports reached 1.7 million barrels per day, the highest level in over five years.
The regime’s focus on oil smuggling is practically diverting national resources and wealth away from the Iranian people. Despite the regime’s significant oil income, economic conditions in Iran remain dire, with high inflation, a depreciating currency, and widespread public dissatisfaction.
Mohsen Rafiqdoost, who was Minister of the #Iran'ian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (#IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq war, believes an effective way to circumvent international sanctions, is to use the private sector to sell Iranian oil.https://t.co/BcZps1PmX4 pic.twitter.com/I6gGcet2Nh
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 22, 2019