A VLCC involved in trading sanctioned oil is reported to be heading for breakers’ breaches as trading options dwindle for these veteran tankers.
Brokers said the 300,000-dwt Artemis III (built 1996) has been sold for scrap, but no price or destination is yet available.
In December, the Malaysian coastguard boarded and detained the Honduras-flagged VLCC and accused it of carrying out an unauthorised ship-to-ship transfer of Iranian oil off its coastline.
The Equasis database shows the ship as managed by Breeze Marine Asset Management of Dubai, which could not be contacted for comment.
Tanker scrap prices have fallen from $550 per ldt to $500 per ldt in Bangladesh and a little less than that in India and Pakistan, according to Greece’s Allied Shipbroking.
But more ageing tankers are being recycled as the sanctions loop closes around them.
TradeWinds reported last month that three older ships long accused of being used to transport sanctioned crude oil cargoes were sold for demolition.
The 300,000-dwt VLCC Itaugua (built 1997) and 105,000-dwt Enzo (built 1999) and the 47,000-dwt product tanker Rialto (built 1998) all appear on pressure group United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s list of ships accused of carrying sanctioned Iranian cargoes.
Their sales follow the offloading of the 299,000-dwt suspected shadow fleet Amor (built 2000), which on 23 December became the first VLCC reported as being sold for recycling since August 2022.
In the case of the Artemis III, a helicopter-based team boarded the ship and the Indian-managed 159,100-dwt suezmax Ocean Hermana (built 2004) after the crews refused to cooperate with a request for an inspection, Malaysian authorities said.
UANI identified the two vessels and posted a satellite image of the ships side-by-side.
The group said the transfer involved an Iranian cargo after it tracked the Artemis III loading around 2m barrels of crude at Iran’s Kharg Island oil terminal in August.
It added the Artemis III carried out an STS transfer of one-third of those barrels to an aframax tanker in the same area off Malaysia in October before authorities took action.
Malaysia was investigating a case of conducting STS operations and anchoring without permission.
AIS data shows the tanker has been at anchor off Singapore since 8 December.
