MIAMI (AP) The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica earlier this year when tracking technology showed it stopping in its tracks and in two minutes turning around 180 degrees. It was an amazingly quick pivot since the 274-meter (nearly 900-foot) ship needs roughly 10 times that amount of […]
The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica earlier this year when tracking technology showed it stopping in its tracks and in two minutes turning around 180 degrees. It was an amazingly quick pivot since the 274-meter ship needs roughly 10 times that amount of time to perform such a…
FILE – In this Sept 8, 2020 file photo, vehicles line up near a gas station to fill their tanks in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)
MIAMI (AP) The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica earlier this year when the safety signals it is required to transmit showed it stopping in its tracks and in two minutes turning around 180 degrees.
It was an amazingly quick pivot since the 274-meter (nearly 900-foot) ship needs roughly 10 times that amount of time to perform such a maneuver.
Even more intriguing: Around the same time in March the Berlina was pinging that location at sea, it was physically spotted loading crude oil in nearby Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions against such trading.
Ships looking to bypass economic sanctions have been increasingly using a method called "spoofing," in which they adopt the registration information of another tanker to conceal their true location.
AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File
MIAMI (AP) The Cyprus-flagged oil tanker Berlina was drifting near the Caribbean island of Dominica earlier this year when tracking technology showed it stopping in its tracks and in two minutes turning around 180 degrees.
It was an amazingly quick pivot since the 274-meter (nearly 900-foot) ship needs roughly 10 times that amount of time to perform such a maneuver.
Even more intriguing: Around the same time the Berlina was pinging its location at sea, it was physically spotted loading crude oil in nearby Venezuela despite U.S. sanctions against such trading.
Meanwhile, nine other ships, some connected to the same Greece-based owner of the Berlina, were digitally monitored moving nearby at an identical speed and direction with sudden draft changes, indicating they had somehow been loaded full of crude though apparently out at sea.