• Growing concern about sanctioned tankers in Indian Ocean

The United States Navy has boarded a stateless and sanctioned oil tanker, the MT Davina, in international waters off the southern coast of Sri Lanka on Friday (5) morning, according to reports from the US Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM).

A senior Government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to The Sunday Morning that the US had boarded the vessel outside Sri Lankan waters in the south of Sri Lanka.

It is learnt that the MT Davina (IMO 9259367), which had been operating under the name Lenore at the time of boarding, is a stateless crude oil tanker sanctioned by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for facilitating the illicit transport of Iranian oil. The vessel is reported to have been loitering in international waters south of Sri Lanka.

“Overnight, US forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel MT Davina located in the Indian Ocean within the INDOPACOM area of responsibility. We will continue global maritime enforcement to disrupt illicit networks and interdict vessels providing material support to Iran, wherever they operate. International waters cannot be used as a shield by sanctioned actors. The Department of War will continue to deny illicit actors and their vessels freedom of manoeuvre in the maritime domain,” the US Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement issued on Friday evening.

It is reliably learnt that the vessel, which had ‘gone dark’ frequently (switched off its Automatic Identification System [AIS] system – in violation of international maritime law), had commenced transmitting its AIS signal following the boarding operation. 

Meanwhile, it is learnt that there is growing concern within the establishment in Colombo about such sanctioned vessels loitering in the Indian Ocean, as they occasionally come within proximity of Sri Lanka, but remain outside the island’s jurisdiction.