A grounded oil supertanker under U.S. Treasury Department sanctions being refloated in Indonesia is filled with Venezuelan fuel, according to vessel monitoring services.
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control last week imposed sanctions on the stranded tanker, Young Yong, for its part in an international oil smuggling network that Washington said supports Hezbollah and Iran's Quds Force.
Last month, the Djibouti-flagged Young Yong received cargoes through ship-to-ship operations from U.S.-blacklisted tanker Silvia I and from the Eagle Brenda before becoming marooned off Indonesia's Riau Islands, according to research by non-government organization United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).
Both tankers had departed between late July and early August carrying fuel oil supplied by Venezuela's state-run oil firm PDVSA, according to internal company documents seen by Reuters and TankerTrackers.com, which confirmed the vessels' identities.
The Iran-flagged Silvia I, owned by state firm National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), carried about 1 million barrels of fuel oil chartered by Iran's Naftiran Intertrade Company as payment for Iranian crude imported by PDVSA this year.
