A ship using a false ID taken from a scrapped vessel has begun operating a Strait of Hormuz shuttle service carrying what is believed to be Iranian oil in defiance of sanctions.
Arsenio Longo, the founder of tanker movement analytics specialists Huax, told The National that the appearance of the “zombie ship” marks the first time a vessel has been used to transport oil to tankers off Oman, and then on for further export, since the Middle East war began.
The vessel is using international ship identifiers, including image and name, taken from a scrapped ship called Jamal. Jamal's photo continues to be used on maritime trackers.
It is a new development in the tactics used by ships to disguise their identity to transit the strait.
A zombie vessel is a ship that broadcasts the unique International Maritime Organisation registration number, name, call sign and flag of another vessel that is scrapped or inactive.
The IMO number is the primary identifier used by port state control authorities, sanctions screening systems, insurance underwriters and compliance databases.
By broadcasting a clean IMO number, a zombie vessel can hide its true identity and pass automated checks.
“The zombie identity works precisely because no one is checking the physical vessel against the digital record in real time,” Mr Longo said.
He explained that once through the strait, the cargo is discharged “likely via ship-to-ship transfer to vessels that are waiting on the Omani side and cannot enter the Gulf”.
“Those vessels then move the cargo onward wherever the final destination is, without ever having to transit Hormuz themselves,” he said. “The zombie vessel is the bridge across the Strait of Hormuz checkpoint.”
The use of zombie ships has, up to now, been primarily seen in attempts to avoid sanctions against Venezuela.
“This is something we haven't seen before in this region, so for us it was very interesting,” said Mr Longo.
Mr Longo said that by comparing the draught of the ship, which indicates how low it sits in the water and is transmitted by an automatic identification system (AIS), he concluded that it had offloaded its cargo – probably oil – off the coast of Oman.
“That kind of transfer, a significant volume, conducted at anchor or via ship-to-ship in an open anchorage zone, is consistent with crude oil products,” he said.
The same data showed that water ballast was loaded on to the ship for the return journey through the strait, in what Mr Longo said was “a structured shuttle operation”.
Data shared with The National by Huax showed that the zombie ship sailed to an anchorage area in open water off the coast of Oman opposite the port of Sohar and discharged its cargo between March 21 and March 23.
Its latest position on the Vessel Finder ship tracker shows it travelling through the Strait of Hormuz on course for the Iranian city of Bandar Abbas, near oil terminals.
“What makes it a shuttle rather than a one-off is that the vessel is now heading back in, presumably to load again: a zombie vessel making repeat laden runs through Hormuz, discharging in the Sohar area via what our broader data set suggests is a ship-to-ship transfer zone, and returning for reload,” said Mr Longo.
Mr Longo said that Huax had not picked up an AIS signal that could definitively locate the ships starting point, but he added that “the presumption is that it is an Iranian port”.
He said the zombie vessel had assumed the identity of a liquid natural gas (LNG) tanker. This, he added, is also a new tactic to evade sanctions in the Strait of Hormuz.
“A vessel broadcasting an LNG carrier IMO number that is not on a sanctions list will pass most automated screens without triggering manual review,” he said.
“The use of an LNG carrier identity … is the first known example of this technique being applied specifically to gain Hormuz passage.”
The use of zombie ships emerged in April last year as a means for operators to transport oil from Venezuela, which was under US sanctions.
The tactic has its origins in the use of dark fleets: uninsured tankers, primarily used by Russia and Iran to circumvent western sanctions on oil exports. These ships use methods such as turning off AIS tracking, changing ownership frequently, and ship-to-ship transfers to hide the oil's origin.
The first reported zombie ship – the Varada – arrived in Malaysia after a two-month voyage from Venezuela. Further investigation revealed its ID was that of a ship scrapped in Bangladesh in 2017.
The real Jamal was built in Japan in 2020. Its former operator Resurgence Ship Management, based in Mumbai, confirmed the Jamal had been scrapped at the Alang shipyard in India. Video shows the moment it arrived there in October last year.
“We are not aware if there's someone else using the same name and IMO number, but definitely, this vessel was scrapped. We don’t have anything to do with this vessel any more,” Resurgence Ship Management told The National.
