Ship-to-Ship Relays Are Moving Cargo Across the Strait of Hormuz in Two Stages

Over a 90-day period between May 27 and August 27, 2026, a single tanker was observed transferring cargo across the Strait of Hormuz in two stages. The vessel, a Barbados-flagged product tanker with a capacity of approximately 40,000 deadweight tonnes, made multiple visits to anchorage clusters in the Gulf of Oman and the Gulf of Oman.

It met with 15 distinct counterpart tankers, more than any other vessel in the reviewed set, and facilitated four confirmed cargo transfers. The tanker acted as a relay, receiving cargo at anchorage clusters in the Gulf and delivering it to tankers waiting at Fujairah and Shinas on the Gulf of Oman side. This structure is consistent with routine ship-to-ship transfer practices in the region.

However, the movement of the cargo across the chokepoint occurs in the gap between the two legs of the transfer, making it harder to trace. One confirmed transfer involved a load of fuel oil from Khor Al Zubair, Iraq, loaded on July 9 and discharged on August 14. Another potential transfer involved a large crude tanker meeting the intermediary at Fujairah for 38 hours on August 14 and 15, but this was inferred rather than confirmed.

The intermediary tanker was flagged with an Iran-program risk, and several of its service vessel counterparts also carried this flag, indicating that the risk could potentially propagate through the relay structure. For counterparty screening, it is important to examine both the movement of cargo and the vessels involved, as the clean result on the named carrier does not necessarily reflect the entire movement.