Weilun Soon of Bloomberg reports that a ship sent to a fiery grave has resurfaced from its grave in an Indonesian scrapyard. Soon writes:
After a dark-fleet ship exploded off the coast of Malaysia in May last year, its scorched wreck was sent to an Indonesian scrapyard. Then, last month, its transponder signal went live once again.
Signals from the supposedly dismantled Pablo were received from the Gulf of Guinea in October, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights, analytics firm Kpler and maritime database Equasis. According to S&P, which first reported the incident last month, the data show that the vessel was conducting a ship-to-ship transfer of cargo with another tanker owned by US-sanctioned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA.
The Pablo’s reemergence is, at best, improbable. More likely, say shipping experts, the zombie appearance is due to a practice where transponder signals from scrapped ships are used by dark-fleet tankers seeking to camouflage their identities, locations and routes as they move sanctioned oil around the globe.[…]
Last known location of Pablo IMO 9133587.
Gabon’s transport ministry and the manager of Gabon’s shipping registry, Intershipping Services, a United Arab Emirates-based company, did not respond to requests for comment.
