Phantom Tankers: GPS Interference Roils Gulf Shipping

By Anna Hirtenstein

LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) – The Front Tyne oil tanker was sailing through the Gulf between Iran and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday when just past 9:40 a.m. shiptracking data appeared to show the massive vessel in Russia, in fields better known for barley and sugar beets.

By 4:15 p.m., the ship’s erratic signals indicated it was in southern Iran near the town of Bidkhun, before later placing it back and forth across the Gulf.

Mass interference since the start of the conflict between Israel and Iran has affected nearly 1,000 ships in the Gulf, according to Windward, a shipping analysis firm.

A collision involving tankers south of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping lane for the world’s oil, occurred on Tuesday with both vessels catching fire. 

One of them, the Front Eagle, a sister ship of the Front Tyne, and like it, more than three football pitches long, appeared to be onshore in Iran on June 15, data from commodity data platform Kpler showed.

“There is usually no jamming in the Strait of Hormuz and now there is a lot,” said Ami Daniel, chief executive of Windward.

“The culmination of all that is higher risk. It’s a hot area… if you don’t geolocate, there’s a bigger chance you’ll have an accident.” 

Ships are required to indicate their location and are fitted with transmitters similar to GPS called an AIS, or Automatic Identification System, that send regular signals on location, speed and other data. Jamming disrupts these signals. 

“The problem these days is that most ships use digitized systems, so if your GPS is jammed, then you have no real form of navigating other than by the seat of your pants,” said Jim Scorer, secretary general of International Federation of Shipmasters’ Associations.

If a ship’s crew intentionally disrupts its signaling, it is called spoofing, and may indicate illegal conduct, such as an effort to conceal a cargo or destination. 

If a third party disrupts signals, as is happening in the Gulf, it is referred to as jamming, according to Dimitris Ampatzidis, an analyst at Kpler. 

The practice has become increasingly common in conflict areas, as some militaries seek to obscure the location of navy vessels or other potential targets. 

Jamming has been observed in the Black Sea during Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports, in the Taiwan Strait and in waters near Syria and Israel, analysts said. Several ships appeared to be on land at Port Sudan last month.

“If you don’t know where vessels are, you’re unable to target them,” said Ampatzidis. 

International Maritime Organization, along with other United Nations agencies, issued a statement in March expressing concern over rising cases of interference in global navigation. 

The oil tanker Xi Wang Mu, which was placed under U.S. sanctions, appeared to be at a Hindu temple in India earlier this year when it spoofed its location, according to analysis by maritime data platform Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

(Reporting by Anna Hirtenstein; additional reporting by Jonathan Saul and Joanna Plucinska; editing by Jason Neely)

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