Iranian tanker owner National Iranian Tanker Co has concentrated nearly two dozen vessels in the Indian Ocean off Sri Lanka over the past two months as US strikes and a naval blockade disrupt Iran’s oil-shipping network, according to TradeWinds.
Sri Lankan authorities separately confirmed a large Iranian tanker presence, saying on 29 August that 20 Iranian fuel tankers were outside the country’s exclusive economic zone and were being monitored.
Authorities have also monitored 11 US-sanctioned Iranian oil tankers south of Galle. The vessels were in international waters and had received no fuel, water, food or other supplies from Sri Lanka, while Colombo had received no formal request from Iran concerning the ships.
The build-up was already visible on 11 August, when 13 empty Iran-flagged tankers were anchored off Galle. Iranian tankers had increasingly been moving towards anchorages in the Indo-Pacific rather than returning to Iranian ports.
Six NITC-owned VLCCs and two of the company’s suezmaxes have been struck by US forces since the conflict began. On 5 September, US forces permanently disabled the crude carriers Downy off Kharg Island and Stark 1 near Jask and destroyed the unladen Kylo, also known as Noxen, in the Gulf of Oman.
The strikes followed ballistic-missile attacks on two US Navy warships. The Iran-flagged Downy, IMO 9218480, is linked to NITC in US Treasury sanctions records. Iranian crude loadings fell from about 2m barrels per day in March to between 220,000 and 255,000 barrels per day in August as the blockade constrained exports through the Strait of Hormuz.
Tehran-based NITC was founded in 1955. The company says it was privatised in 2000, when its shares passed to three pension funds. US Treasury sanctions records classify NITC as a Government of Iran entity.