Don’t Wait for Official OFAC Sanctions Announcements…

Seven tankers linked to Houthi and Hezbollah trade networks were sanctioned by the U.S. last week. This didn’t come as a surprise to Windward Maritime AI™ users…six of these vessels were already flagged in our system as “high risk,” starting in September 2022. 

This highlights the importance of predictive intelligence and analytics, because you obviously can’t afford to wait for official government announcements to know which vessels potentially endanger your trading and shipping operations. 

OFAC Sanctions Seven LPG Tankers 

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced new sanctions on August 15 against seven liquid petroleum gas (LPG) tankers and their owners for alleged linkage to an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)-related Yemeni individual who was running trade networks for the Houthi rebels and Hezbollah terror group..

The sanctioned vessels are the Victoria (IMO: 9113379), Raha Gas (IMO: 8818219), Parvati (IMO: 8519966), LPG OM (IMO: 9160475), Lady Liberty (IMO: 9005065), Fengshun (IMO: 9007386), and Divine Power (IMO: 9171357).

Vessel Insights to help Shape Future Risk Strategies

Here are a few general insights about the targeted vessels that can help you better understand what to be looking for when attempting to detect deceptive shipping practices (DSPs):

• All seven vessels sail under flags of convenience, mostly under the flag of Palau (43%) and São Tomé and Príncipe (29%)
• All of the vessels are relatively old – built between 1987-2000 – usually an indicator of illicit activity (bad actors don’t want to risk losing newer, more expensive vessels)
• Most of the vessels are owned by Hong Kong and Marshall Islands-based companies
• Four out of the seven vessels have the same registered owner company, Kai Heng Global Energy Limited, which was sanctioned due to its connection to the IRGC
• Most of these vessels operated between East Asia and the Arabian Gulf in the past, according to our data, but more recently they shifted their routes a bit for the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Aden (see the next section), in alignment with an ownership change.
• Most of the vessels in question do not have a P&I insurer, which is considered a risk indicator

Ship-to-Ship Meetings and Location (GNSS) Manipulations 

OFAC flagged the seven vessels for their ownership connections to sanctioned regimes, but the Windward Maritime AI™ platform flagged six of them as high risk beginning in September 2022 (but mostly since March 2023). This was largely due to their illicit behavior and engagement in deceptive shipping practices, such as ship-to-ship (STS) meetings with other sanctioned and high risk vessels and location (GNSS) manipulation. 

Data shows that the majority of location (GNSS) manipulations by the vessels were conducted in May 2024 within the Arabian Gulf – starting in the United Arab Emirates’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ).  

The Importance of Maritime AI™ and Predictive Intelligence and Analytics

For these seven sanctioned vessels, predictive intelligence and analytics were important for two reasons: 

1. Windward users received much earlier and automatic alerts about problematic vessels, so they could safeguard their trading and shipping business before sanctions hit, and without being dependent upon later official announcements.
   
   Windward has found that 86% of sanctioned vessels are flagged as high risk by our platform during the year prior to their sanctioning. 

2. The sanctions announcement did not mention the ship-to-ship meetings or location (GNSS) manipulation, leaving organizations in the maritime ecosystem without the full picture, or knowing how to best shape their own detection and tracking strategies. 

Predictive risk recommendations and actionable insights lead to enhanced maritime domain awareness. Organizations can proactively detect previously unknown global emerging threats in areas of interest with full context and applied-AI insights, based on behavioral anomalies and seasonal outliers. 

I Don’t Want to Wait for the Next Announcement