Sanctioned Tanker SOGL Lands 500,000 bbl of Iranian LPG in China

A Comoros-flagged tanker carrying roughly 500,000 barrels of Iranian LPG (liquefied petroleum gas, a mix of propane and butane) ran the U.S. naval blockade and discharged at Xinzhou Port in China, according to United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), the advocacy group that tracked the voyage by boat and satellite.

The vessel, SOGL (IMO 9208227), loaded at Assaluyeh Port on Iran's South Pars coast in late August and crossed the blockade line on Sept. 1. UANI says it chartered a supply boat on Sept. 16 and ran about 100 nautical miles to the EOPL anchorage off Malaysia, where its people filmed the tanker bunkering and taking services before it sailed north. Three weeks later, on Oct. 8, the Treasury Department sanctioned the ship as one of 17 shadow-fleet vessels, noting the Marshall Islands-owned Gravion Maritime Company tanker "has transported more than two million barrels of Iranian propane/butane since September 2025."

What does the blockade actually stop?

On crude, plenty. UANI says it has not tracked a single crude-laden tanker that left the Gulf of Oman and evaded U.S. enforcement since July 12. Satellite monitoring in September observed zero crude loadings across Iran's export hubs. Loadings were limited to small volumes of LPG, naphtha and fuel oil.

On gas, less. "Only around nine small tankers carrying Iranian LPG have successfully passed the blockade line" since July, UANI wrote in its Oct. 29 shipping update. UANI senior analyst Jemima Shelley told Fox News the small gas tankers switch off AIS transponders (the mandatory satellite positioning signal), often fly false flags to appear stateless, transit the Strait of Hormuz, and transfer cargo ship-to-ship in the Gulf of Oman to a second vessel that then tests the blockade line. LPG makes that maneuver dangerous, she said, which is why U.S. forces mostly turn the small gas carriers around rather than use force.

Is another breach underway?

UANI believes so. The group says DANDELION (IMO 9379404) "is likely attempting to breach the U.S. maritime blockade, laden with 490,000 barrels of Iranian LPG." The cargo came from SEA OPERA in a ship-to-ship transfer off Shinas, Oman, on Oct. 26. SEA OPERA had loaded at Assaluyeh on Aug. 26 and spent two months loitering in the Gulf of Oman before the handoff.

Why does Malaysia matter?

Shelley called the EOPL anchorage a "key node in Iran's oil trade to China" and said Malaysian authorities appear to be "looking the other way." UANI counts about 20 tankers from its "Ghost Armada" list still loitering at the EOPL, plus another 22 anchored just north of it. The group reads that northern cluster as vessels repositioned after recent enforcement by Malaysian maritime authorities. The caveat writes itself: UANI's numbers come from its own tracking, not from port or customs data.

Where is the trapped oil?

UANI counts at least 53 laden tankers, mostly carrying crude, sitting along Iran's coast. Only eight of 52 loadings tracked since July 14 came from Kharg Island, Iran's main crude terminal. Twenty empty Iran-flagged tankers that discharged abroad now loiter off Sri Lanka, unable to sail home. Shelley said Iran's floating storage has fallen to "zero to seven million barrels" since enforcement began. Fox said it asked U.S. Central Command for comment; no answer appears in the report.

Shelley also noted the demand side: China now takes "almost 100%" of Iran's oil and LPG exports, up from roughly 80% of Iran's liquid cargo exports in earlier years. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the Oct. 8 designations as "starving the tyrannical regime in Tehran of the money it uses to wage war in the region."

Takeaway: the blockade has shut in Iranian crude, but a thin pipe of sanctioned LPG still reaches Chinese terminals. Watch whether DANDELION makes the line — and whether Kuala Lumpur moves on the EOPL anchorage.