A small Iranian “ghost fleet” is reportedly slipping through the U.S. naval blockade to move sanctioned liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to China via a covert maritime hub off Malaysia, according to U.S. investigators who secretly filmed one tanker during its journey in September.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which carried out the months-long investigation, said at least nine comparable tankers transporting Iranian oil or LPG have bypassed U.S. restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz since Washington restored its blockade of Iranian ports in July.
UANI named the SOGL as one of the sanctioned vessels. The tanker allegedly left the blockade zone on Sept. 1 with roughly 500,000 barrels of Iranian LPG after loading at an Iranian port the previous month.
After sailing thousands of miles, the vessel reached an offshore anchorage near Malaysia, where UANI recorded it taking on fuel and receiving other services. The tanker later continued to China, where the group said it unloaded the Iranian cargo.
IRAN’S $800M OIL SMUGGLING SCHEME USES TANKERS POSING AS IRAQI SHIPS TO DODGE BLOCKADE
U.S. Marines aboard USS New Orleans (LPD 18) stand watch in the Arabian Sea during naval blockade operations against Iran. (U.S. Central Command)
“The tanker loaded Iranian LPG at Assaluyeh Port in late August before breaking through the U.S. blockade and sailing to an anchorage off Malaysia,” said Jemima Shelley, a senior analyst at UANI.
The footage demonstrates that “some vessels are managing to breach the U.S. maritime blockade,” Shelley said in comments about the video shared exclusively with News Media.
“Most vessels are not,” she said. “But since the blockade was reinstated in mid-July, we have identified only nine small tankers that successfully breached it and left the Gulf of Oman carrying oil or LPG.”
A key link in the network is the Malaysian Eastern Outer Port Limits Anchorage, or EOPL, an offshore shipping zone located about 70 kilometers from Malaysia’s coast.
Shelley said the anchorage has emerged as an important staging area for Iran’s sanctioned energy shipments bound for China.
The location enables ships to remain offshore while taking on supplies or transferring cargo between tankers. That flexibility gives Iranian energy exporters a vital logistical route as U.S. naval forces patrol waters nearer to Iran.
UANI had tracked the SOGL before the tanker entered Malaysian waters, Shelley said.
“On September 16, United Against Nuclear Iran chartered a supply vessel and traveled 100 nautical miles into the Malaysian Eastern Outer Port Limits Anchorage,” Shelley said.
“There, we witnessed firsthand the illicit operations of ghost fleet tankers, along with several Iran-flagged cargo ships anchored in the area. The SOGL was among them.”
She characterized the SOGL as a “Handymax small tanker” carrying approximately 500,000 barrels of Iranian LPG.
The United States first imposed the maritime blockade on April 13. It was temporarily lifted in mid-June, then reinstated on July 14 after diplomatic talks broke down. The operation has sharply curtailed Iran’s crude oil exports, cutting into a major revenue stream as Tehran confronts mounting economic pressure.
“The U.S. blockade has been overwhelmingly successful in stopping vessels carrying Iranian oil and petrochemicals from leaving the Gulf of Oman,” Shelley said.
Since the blockade returned, she added, “no Iranian crude oil has managed to depart and become a successful export for Iran,” creating “huge economic pressure” on the Iranian regime.
The remaining exceptions, she said, are “opportunistic small tankers” that have managed to slip through the blockade.
The United States, she said, is primarily prioritizing Iranian crude and very large tankers, which often carry “two million barrels of Iranian crude.”
Malaysia is roughly a 10-day-to-two-week journey from Iran. (AFP/AFP via Getty Images)
LPG is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbons, primarily propane and butane, used for heating, cooking, transportation and industrial production.
“LPG carries a lot of risks,” Shelley said. “The U.S. blockade’s first course of action is to try to attempt to turn around these vessels, which is their main technique for enforcing the U.S. blockade.”
“However, sometimes they do have to use military force and this would be incredibly high risk on far more volatile cargo such as LPG.”
According to Shelley, the smaller vessels exploit those challenges while using tactics commonly associated with Iran’s ghost fleet.
“So what they’ll do is they will turn off their AIS. They will often fly a false flag so they’re completely stateless vessels,” she added.
Automatic Identification System, or AIS, transponders broadcast a vessel’s identity, position and movements to other ships and maritime authorities. Switching them off can make a vessel more difficult to track.
“Often they will load, and then they will transit the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, and then in the Gulf of Oman, they will conduct a ship-to-ship transfer there,” Shelley said, describing it as a “very high-risk ship-to-ship transfer because it’s LPG, not crude oil.”
“And then the other tanker that’s receiving the LPG will then transit and attempt to breach the blockade.”
The overall scale remains relatively small compared with Iran’s historical energy exports.
Liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG, is a flammable mixture of hydrocarbons, primarily propane and butane, used for heating, cooking, transportation and industrial production and carries risk when shipped. (Firdous Nazir/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The SOGL, identified by IMO number 9208227, was added to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions list Oct. 8 over its alleged involvement in transporting Iranian petroleum products since 2025.
The vessel has operated under multiple flags, including the Comoros and Zimbabwe, and has been linked in sanctions records to Gravion Maritime Co.
“Most of these tankers are very emblematic of what ghost fleet tankers do and so are flying false flags, which means they’re completely stateless and will have very complicated front companies running them,” Shelley said.
Meanwhile, the EOPL anchorage in Malaysia — roughly a 10-day-to-two-week journey from Iran — has become an important logistical center for Iranian vessels traveling toward Chinese buyers and a “key node in Iran’s oil trade to China,” Shelley said.
“It is used by ghost fleet tankers, Iran-flagged tankers that will load Iranian crude and then transit eastwards from Iran all the way to this anchorage where they will often conduct ship-to-ship transfers with the final tanker bound for China.”
“Often this anchorage is also used for floating storage, which is how Iran managed to survive for so long with the U.S. blockade being reinstated in July,” Shelley said.
She also clarified that since the blockade has been enforced, Iranian floating storage has fallen to “zero to seven million barrels.”
“So you can see how they have survived from having this offshore anchorage where illicit ghost fleet tankers have been able to wait laden with Iranian products.”
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) filmed the sanctioned tanker offshore. (UANI)
UANI’s video also shows the SOGL sitting low in the water and receiving bunkering services from a smaller tanker off Malaysia, where Shelley said authorities appear to be “looking the other way.”
“This is a common thing that you will see in this anchorage, because not only is this anchorage used for ship-to-ship transfers, but also these ghost fleet tankers, as well as some cargo ships in this anchorage, require various services, whether that is food, logistics or bunker fuel.”
China is the dominant destination for Iranian oil and LPG, providing Tehran with a critical economic outlet despite U.S. sanctions and the naval blockade.
“For years, China has made up 80% of Iran’s liquid cargo exports, and we have seen that only grow since the beginning of the Iran War. Now China is importing almost 100% of Iran’s oil and LPG exports.”
“It has created a system and trade that has allowed Iran to avoid sanctions, U.S. and OPEC sanctions, whilst China is able to buy highly discounted Iranian oil and LPG.”
An Iranian oil tanker is seen floating in the Caspian Sea. (HENGHAMEH FAHIMI/AFP via Getty Images)
“After United Against Nuclear Iran’s trip to the EOPL, interestingly, this small LPG tanker SOGL did not conduct a ship-to-ship transfer,” Shelley said.
“Instead, it transited northbound into the South China Sea, where it finally discharged its Iranian LPG at Xinzhou Port in China.”
The G Summer, a U.S.-sanctioned LPG carrier with a capacity of approximately 7,000 cubic meters, was also separately tracked transmitting signals from the Arabian Sea beyond the American blockade line in April, according to Bloomberg.
The vessel broadcast a message indicating it had an “all Chinese crew” aboard, while shipping analytics identified Iran as its last cargo country and Galle, Sri Lanka, as its reported destination.
News Media has reached out to CENTCOM for comment.
