Indonesia has seized a notorious Iran-flag VLCC carrying 2m barrels of crude oil over a suspected illicit ship-to-ship (STS) transfer with a vessel listed as scrapped five years ago.
The 300,600-dwt Arman 114 (built 1997) was held after it was spotted near the North Natuna Sea carrying out an STS operation without the authorities being notified, according to Indonesia’s maritime security agency, Bakamla.
The tanker steamed away from the STS zone before it was boarded by armed Bakamla officials by boat while Malaysian marines descended on to the deck by rope from a helicopter. The Egyptian captain and 28 Syrian crew members were detained, according to Bakamla.
The operation was reminiscent of the seizure of Arman 114, under its former name Grace 1, by British Royal Marines in July 2019 before it was held in Gibraltar for six weeks on suspicion that it was delivering oil to Syria.
It was allowed to leave despite US protests after Iran pledged not to sell the $130m of crude to Syria in contravention of European Union sanctions.
But the ship — dubbed by TradeWinds as the world’s most-watched tanker — then headed to Syria under the new name of Adrian Darya 1 after turning its AIS off in September 2019. Iran claimed it had sold the oil to a private company at sea, but satellite photos and tracking suggested otherwise.
The UK military operation led to the retaliatory seizure of the 49,700-dwt Stena Impero (built 2018), which was sailing under a British flag. The Stena Impero was detained for 71 days before it was released following talks between Stena Bulk chief executive Erik Hanell and then Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.
The Adrian Darya 1 re-emerged as Arman 114 after a name change in 2020, according to ship ownership database Equasis, and has returned to prominence with the joint Indonesian and Malaysian operation.
The Arman 114 and the second ship, the 305,800-dwt S Tinos (built 1999), tried to escape with transfer equipment still attached to the two vessels, said Bakamla. The vessels did not respond to communications, the agency said.
The Indonesian coastguard focused on stopping the Arman 114 as it entered Malaysian waters loaded with the crude. The VLCC was also suspected of manipulating its AIS, with data suggesting it was in the Red Sea.
“So it seems like they already had a malicious intent,” Bakamla head Aan Kurnia was quoted as saying by Reuters.
The current location of S Tinos was not immediately clear.
Under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (Marpol), tanker operators should inform a state no less than 48 hours before a planned STS in its territorial waters or exclusive economic zone, which stretches 200 nautical miles (370 km) from the coast.
The registered owner and manager of the Arman 114, listed as Panama-based Ocean Mark Shipping, could not be immediately contacted for comment.
The S Tinos was thought to have been scrapped in 2018, said Kurnia. Equasis and VesselsValue list it as having been broken up.
TradeWinds reported in 2018 that the S Tinos, then named the New Tinos, was about to become one of the first ships to be scrapped in Pakistan after an 18-month hiatus.
The ship was said to have been sold by the Adam Polemis-led Greek tanker owner New Shipping. It was sold to a cash buyer for $19.1m, demolition market sources said at the time. Its registered owner in 2018 was listed by Equasis as Singapore-based Sarga International Ltd.
