Iran is disabling tracking systems on most of its 39-ship tanker fleet, Reuters reported Friday, citing oil industry, trading and shipping sources, who said it was an effort to disguise the destination of oil sales.
The effort to take the ships “off radar” is designed to counter sanctions by the West, the sources told Reuters. Captains of the National Iranian Tanker Co. were ordered to switch off their black box transponders used in the shipping industry to track vessels, the sources said.
An NITC official declined comment to Reuters.
Full story at: www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/13/us-iran-oil-tracking-idUSBRE83C0TS20120413
-Dow Jones Newswires
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Vessel transits at the Strait of Hormuz fell to seven on Thursday from 11 the previous day, preliminary ship-tracking data showed on Friday, well below the 10-day average of 15.
Iran said on Wednesday it had attacked 10 ships near the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. sank five Iranian oil tankers, in the biggest declared wave of tit-for-tat attacks on shipping by both sides since the start of the six-month-old war.
Iran said it will announce a new restricted zone in the Gulf in the coming days, along with maps of a new shipping corridor through the Strait of Hormuz, as a weekend exchange of strikes on shipping sent oil prices higher on Monday.
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