The company behind the VLCC that collided with a Hafnia tanker on Friday has been raising suspicions for roughly five years.
The listed address for Shanghai Prosperity Ship Management — manager of the 300,000-dwt Ceres I (built 2001) — housed an online mobile phone reseller when TradeWinds went looking for the company in 2019 after it and other low-profile companies were connected to a raft of vessel purchases.
Efforts to reach them by phone fell short, too, as the Shanghai telephone exchange said its phone number did not exist.
Then, the company bought the 45,800-dwt product tanker Barcan III (built 2004).
It appeared to divest that ship last year. It would take control of the Ceres I in 2019.
In subsequent years, the Ceres I would be accused of lifting Iranian oil in contravention of US sanctions by United Against Nuclear Iran.
In May, the New York-based pro-sanctions pressure group claimed to identify the VLCC as one of 93 ships that switched from carrying Iranian crude to Russian crude and aiding Moscow’s attempts to circumvent the G7 price cap.
The Ceres I has spent almost the entirety of the past year in the waters around Singapore and Malaysia, automatic identification system data shows.
The area has reportedly been the site of several ship-to-ship transfers of illicit oil cargoes and prompted US officials to visit both countries last month in hopes of clamping down on the trades.
The ship left the region only twice — once in March on a voyage to the United Arab Emirates and once for a month-long stay at the Zhoushan Asia Pacific Dockyard beginning in late April.
It is with the Sao Tome & Principe registry, which has been connected to other dark fleet vessels, although the database Equasis has the Ceres I having flown an unknown flag for nearly three years before falsely registering itself with the island country.
It appears to be properly flying the Sao Tome & Principe flag from April, however.
The Sao Tome & Principe International Ship Registry has been approached for comment.
Who is in Unit A1?
The Barcan III was one of 10 ships from the former Kunlun Shipping fleet that changed hands following Kunlun’s blacklisting by the US, largely to new, nondescript managers and owners.
Shanghai Prosperity was one of those managers, with a listed address at Unit A1 on the seventh floor of an office building in Shanghai.
When TradeWinds visited, the ship manager could not be found.
The address appears to be the same and is the forwarding address for the Ceres I’s registered owner, Ceres Shipping Ltd-HKG.
A telephone number was found this time, but the person who picked up a phone hung up after we identified ourselves as from TradeWinds.
Equasis lists two ships under Shanghai Prosperity’s management.
The other, the 105,965-dwt suezmax tanker Themis (built 2002), was taken over in 2021.
