Viktor Artemov and his 11 tankers were sanctioned for carrying Iranian oil, but the ships appear to have been working Venezuelan trades as well, according to a US lobby group.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) — a New York-based group opposing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and any potential revival — said it has tracked several of the ships and found they loaded oil from both countries under heavy sanctions by the US.
“[There are] definitely Iran connections here, but also Venezuela connections,” said Claire Jungman, the organisation’s chief of staff. “That seems to be where the US is targeting this network.
“I think that’s interesting because there was no direct mention of Venezuela in the announcement, but these vessels are involved in that trade.”
Jungman said UANI tracked the 112,700-dwt Rain Drop (built 2002) engaged in a ship-to-ship transfer for Ava Petroleum, a company the US identified as controlled by Artemov and used to sell the illicit oil.
UANI said another ship, the 299,500-dwt Nolan (built 2000), attempted a ship-to-ship transfer in May in the Strait of Malacca.
“After that, the vessel went on to Venezuela and has been anchored there since,” Jungman said. “Prior to that May potential transfer, it had loaded Venezuelan oil on a few occasions.”
The 306,300-dwt Young Yong (built 2001) was the third ship tracked by UANI and Jungman said it solely carried Iranian oil until the end of October, when it ran aground in Indonesia near a Singapore gas pipeline.
She said the ship — which was refloated last week following the go-ahead from the US government — is currently carrying Venezuelan fuel oil loaded from an Iranian tanker.
Five others, including the 68,500-dwt B Luminosa (built 2003), the Bluefins (built 2001), the 310,300-dwt Bueno (built 2005) and the 71,900-dwt Boceanica (built 2004), had also been tracked by UANI as trading Venezuelan oil.
Jungman also said the 310,300-dwt Adisa (built 2005) loaded Venezuelan oil in October under a different name.
Iran has been under strict US sanctions since 2018, when former US president Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal. The 2015 agreement saw Tehran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the US lifting sanctions.
Venezuela has been under similar scrutiny from the US, although in June two European companies were given the green light to import oil from the South American country.
The sanctions appear to have pushed the two countries closer together economically, with the highest-profile example coming in 2020, when Iran sent five tankers to Venezuela laden with gasoline. It followed that shipment up with three more tankers.
The sanctions against Artemov came as discussions on reviving the 2015 deal appear to have stalled after on-again, off-again talks going back to the spring of 2021.
