一艘挂着新加坡国旗的油轮在近三年前完成了最后一次航行，它曾海上漂泊了超过二十年。本月早些时候，根据船舶追踪数据，该船抵达中国的一个港口，装载着原油，并准备卸货。随着所谓的“暗黑舰队”在全球范围内运送受限制的石油而扩张，新的策略不断涌现。这种被称作“僵尸船只”的船，即利用合法但已停运的船只的身份，成为了运营商绕过日益收紧的管制和操纵自动识别系统（AIS）定位系统的一种工具。
这艘名为EM Longevity的超大型原油油轮在2000年建成，于2021年底在其使用寿命结束时被送到孟加拉国的一家拆船厂。然而，在9月23日，一艘标有相同编号的船只出现在中国辽宁省大连的一个码头，然后离开了港口部分卸货，并驶向了中国的东北部黄海。根据船舶追踪和卫星数据，这艘船在周日停靠在中国山东省烟台港。
基于暗黑舰队之前的实践方式，我们可以推测在烟台的那艘船只是原EM Longevity拆解后合法身份的继承者。然而，我们目前无法排除另一种可能性：即老油轮可能从拆船厂重新“复活”使用。无论这艘船是否是原来的那艘，重新启用一艘24年历史的原油油轮有什么意义？哥本哈根大学海洋基础设施研究组的研究员Jan Stockbruegger提出疑问：“这看起来是一艘在伪装其合法身份以躲避监控的船只。”
在船舶跟踪数据库中未显示EM Longevity当前的管理者、所有者或保险信息，仅标明国际海事组织登记号。VesselTracker数据库提供的信息显示，该油轮目前挂靠了斯威士兰的国旗——一个非洲内陆国声称其允许无权使用该国旗。
值得注意的是，EM Longevity的复制品展现了暗黑舰队的其他特征。这艘载有货物的“僵尸”船从8月11日开始穿越霍尔木兹海峡进入伊朗周围的水域。随后它驶向伊朗Kharg岛附近的拥有油港的位置，并在那里停留了三天，然后返回阿曼海并再次朝霍尔木兹海峡方向前进。到9月末，载满货物的“僵尸”船已经通过马六甲海峡，绕过新加坡继续北上至中国。
在船舶数据库Equasis中记录显示，此前为EM Longevity管理船只的Sea Agility Pte公司没有对邮件或电话发出的评论请求做出回应。
近来，中国所谓的“炼油厂”，尤其是位于山东省的部分炼油厂，几乎依赖于从受到制裁的伊朗等国家获取价格相对较低的原油。这些炼油厂作为关键买家购买了大量伊朗石油。据Kpler数据显示，在9月份，中国的进口伊朗原油量预计达到每天179万桶的新高。
以上信息提供了关于最近一艘疑似假冒船只活动的一个案例分析，但确切的情况和其背后的动机仍需进一步调查与确认。
新闻来源：www.bloomberg.com
原文地址：Zombie Oil Tanker Turns Up at Northern Chinese Port Laden with Crude
新闻日期：2024-09-30
原文摘要：
Singapore-flagged oil tanker made its final voyage almost three years ago, after more than two decades at sea. Earlier this month, ship-tracking data showed it arriving at a Chinese port, loaded with crude and ready to discharge.With the expansion of the dark fleet moving restricted oil around the world, new tactics are constantly emerging. So-called “zombie vessels”, which assume the identity of legitimate but defunct ships, are among the tools used by operators to circumvent tightening restrictions and to manipulate the Automatic Identification System, or AIS, tracking system.In this case, the EM Longevity was a very-large crude carrier built in 2000. In December 2021, at the end of its useful life, records show it was sent to a scrapyard in Bangladesh.But on Sept. 23, a tanker bearing its identity number showed up at a terminal in Dalian in Liaoning province. It then left that port, having partially unloaded, and sailed across the Yellow Sea in China’s northeast. On Sunday, it docked at Yantai, a port city in Shandong province, according to ship-tracking and satellite data.Past dark fleet practices would indicate the vessel in Yantai simply took on the identity of the broken-up, legitimate EM Longevity. It was not immediately possible, however, to exclude the less likely option that the old tanker was resurrected from the scrapyard.“Regardless of whether it’s the same ship or not, why would you want to reactivate a crude-oil tanker that’s 24 years old?” said Jan Stockbruegger, a research fellow at the University of Copenhagen’s Ocean Infrastructure Research Group. “This seems like a vessel that’s signaling that it’s legitimate just so that it can sail under the radar.” The EM Longevity’s International Maritime Organization registration number does not indicate a current manager, owner or insurer on ship-tracking databases including Bloomberg. According to data from VesselTracker, a database of maritime information, the tanker now sails under the flag of Eswatini. The landlocked African kingdom has said that use its flag without permission.The EM Longevity’s doppelganger bears other hallmarks of the dark fleet. It started to sail past the Straits of Hormuz into the waters near Iran around Aug. 11, half full of cargo, ship-tracking data show. For two days it sailed on to a spot past Iran’s Kharg Island which has an oil terminal, and stayed there for another three days, before making its way through the Persian Gulf back toward the Straits of Hormuz. By the end of the month, the laden zombie ship had made its way through the Straits of Malacca, then past Singapore before heading north toward China. By mid-September, the vessel was in the Yellow Sea between Liaoning and Shandong provinces. Sea Agility Pte, listed as EM Longevity’s previous manager on shipping databases including Equasis, did not respond to requests for comment by email or phone.China’s so-called teapot refiners, many of them based in Shandong, have become all but reliant on less expensive crude from sanctioned regimes in recent years, emerging in particular as key buyers of Iranian oil. Imports of Iranian crude into China are set to reach a of 1.79 million barrels per day in September, data from Kpler show.
