When a VLCC began discharging oil to a smaller tanker in a ship-to-ship operation near the Malacca Strait this summer, ship tracking data suggested the vessels were somewhere else — and nearly 13 km apart.
The Comoros-flagged 300,300-dwt Itaugua (built 1997) had long been linked to the Iranian trade so it came as little surprise when the veteran tanker laden with 2m barrels of crude was tracked passing through the Gulf of Oman heading to Asia in late July.
