Tanker adrift for 20 months with leaking flammable cargo after US sanctions hit Iran ‘shadow banking’ network

A tanker carrying flammable naphtha has been drifting in the South China Sea for 20 months after its charterer was hit by US sanctions targeting an Iranian “shadow banking” network, according to a court ruling.

The cargo was loaded on board a vessel in Singapore on 9 February 2023 — the same day the unidentified charterer was hit by sanctions targeting the Iran-linked Triliance trading network.