[1/2]KN patrol ship. Patrols Pulau Maruri-322, owned by Indonesia’s Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) to inspect Iranian-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC), MT Arman 114, and Cameroon-flagged MT S Tinos as they have been spotted steering a ship-to Oil transport ship without permit, …
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesia’s coast guard said on Tuesday it had seized an Iranian-flagged supertanker suspected of illicit transportation of crude oil and vowed to step up maritime patrols.
Indonesian authorities said the MT Arman 114 tanker was carrying 272,569 metric tons of light crude oil worth 4.6 trillion rupiah ($304 million) when it was seized last week.
The Southeast Asian country’s Maritime Security Agency said a very large crude oil tanker (VLCC) was suspected of transferring oil to another vessel without authorization on Friday.
The head of the agency, Aan Cornea, said the ship was seized after it was spotted in Indonesia’s North Natuna Sea carrying out ship-to-ship oil transfers on board the Cameroon-flagged MTS Tinos.
“MT Armand was spoofing the Automatic Identification System (AIS) to show its location is in the Red Sea but it’s actually here,” Ahn told reporters.
“It seems they really had malicious intent,” An said, adding that the ship also dumped oil into the ocean, in violation of Indonesian environmental law.
The ship’s operators could not immediately be reached for comment.
The agency said that the authorities detained, along with Arman, its Egyptian captain and his 28 crew, and 3 passengers from the family of a security officer who was on board.
After the supertanker’s attempted escape, authorities focused their pursuit on Arman, aided by Malaysian authorities as the ship sailed through their waters, An said.
He added that Tinos was supposed to be scrapped in 2018. It was built in 1999 while Arman was built in 1997, according to Equasis freight database.
A Reuters analysis this year showed that a “shadow” fleet of tankers carrying oil from sanctioned Iran, Russia and Venezuela moved the cargoes in the Singapore Strait to avoid detection.
The risk of oil spills and accidents is growing as hundreds more vessels, some without insurance cover, have joined the opaque parallel trade over the past few years.
He pledged that the Indonesian Coast Guard, with the help of other authorities, would step up patrols in his waters. Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world, with about 17,000 islands.
“We have to be firm, tough,” he said. “There has to be a deterrent effect so that it doesn’t happen again.”
In 2021, Indonesia seized Iranian and Panama-flagged ships over similar accusations. The captains of the two ships received a two-year probationary period from an Indonesian court.
($1 = 15,155,0000 rupees)
(Reporting by Stefano Suleiman and Francesca Nangui) Editing by Lincoln Feist and Clarence Fernandez
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