Advanced spoofing hides Russian oil transfers in Gulf of Oman
- zarra6
- Sep 11
- 2 min read
11 September 2025 Lloyd's List
RUSSIA’S shadow fleet tankers are using sophisticated spoofing methods to disguise ship-to-ship transfers in the Gulf of Oman to circumvent sanctions and avoid detection by watchful regulators.
Analysts at energy intelligence provider Vortexa first spotted the transshipment of Russian oil in this area in February 2024.
At the time it was an infrequent occurrence, but this activity is on the rise and becoming more difficult to spot as tankers manipulate their positional data in increasingly sophisticated ways to avoid detection.
Vortexa senior freight analyst Mary Melton said STS transfers in the Gulf of Oman enabled the transfer of Russian crude from a US Office of Foreign Assets Control-designated tanker to a non-Ofac-sanctioned tanker, which could then deliver the cargo to India or China.
“Logistically, it also enables the sanctioned tankers to conduct the STS in a location further away from the ultimate discharge port and head back to Russia to load more quickly,” Melton said.
Aframax Rozmarine (IMO: 9250531), for example, departed the port of Murmansk on January 28, two weeks after it was sanctioned by Ofac, laden with 738,000 barrels of Novy Port crude.
It entered the Gulf of Aden on February 18 and started manipulating its positional information within days.
At this point the Automatic Identification System trace, which showed the vessel taking a seemingly normal route up to the Gulf of Oman before turning back, is falsified.Rozmarine conducted a STS transfer with Sierra Leone-flagged Prisma (IMO: 9299678) during this period, according to Vortexa.
Prisma also spoofed its location at this time, showing itself as manoeuvring off the southern coast of Oman, near Duqm.
The cargo was delivered by Prisma to Lanshan, China at the end of March.
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