Indonesia seizes Iran-flagged ship suspected of transferring oil illegally

Indonesia’s coast guard said Tuesday that it had seized an Iran-flagged supertanker ship suspected of moving crude oil illegally in the Southeast Asian nation's waters.

Indonesian authorities said the MT Arman 114 was carrying 272,569 metric tons of light crude oil, valued at 4.6 trillion rupiah ($304 million) when it was captured last week.

The 26-year-old tanker was seized after being spotted in Indonesia’s North Natuna Sea, suspected of moving oil to Cameroon-flagged MT S Tinos without a permit on Friday, Aan Kurnia, chief of Indonesia's country’s maritime security agency, said. 

"MT Arman was spoofing their automatic identification system (AIS) to show its position was in the Red Sea but in reality it is here," he told reporters Tuesday. "So it seems like they already had a malicious intent."

He said that the two supertankers tried to escape but working with the Malaysian authorities, Indonesian authorities managed to seize the Iran-flagged ship.

Aan said that the vessel had already violated Indonesian environmental law by dumping oil in the middle of the ocean.

The agency said that it detained the Egyptian captain of the tanker, 28 crew members and three passengers who were the family of a security worker on board.

The Indonesia’s maritime security agency did not comment further when contacted by Al-Monitor, saying that the matter was under investigation. 

Reuters reported last year that a “shadow” fleet of tankers carrying oil from sanctioned Iran, Russia and Venezuela had been transferring shipments in the Singapore Strait to avoid detection.

On Monday, a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the country's naval forces seized a tanker smuggling Iranian fuel in Persian Gulf waters last week.