Friday, August 30, 2019

Iranian oil tanker now bound for Lebanon


A day after the Iranian oil-laden supertanker Adrian Darya 1 made a complete u-turn just as it made its way into Turkish territorial waters, Turkey has denied that it will enter port there; instead, top Turkish officials say it is bound for Lebanon. 
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday the tanker and its 2 million barrels of oil are headed to "the main port in Lebanon,"as reported by Reuters.  
Image source: Reuters
It has changed course several times since being released by UK/Gibraltar custody weeks ago, and now appears to be circling in waters west of Cyprus. 
Interestingly, in all the maneuvering it has actually come in the vicinity of its original suspected destination for which it was accused of busting EU sanctions in the first place, the Syrian port of Baniyas
According to Refinitiv tracking data, the Adrian Darya, formerly called Grace 1, made a U-turn on Friday and headed for Turkey's Iskenderun port - 200 km (124 miles) north of Syria's Baniyas refinery, the tanker's suspected original destination.

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