Vessels posing as tankers that were sent for scrap years ago have appeared to pass through the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, in another example of how the Middle East war and the heavy signal interference in the region are affecting global shipping and energy flows.
The vessel Nabiin, which was in the Persian Gulf on Sunday, has now moved to the Gulf of Oman, meaning that it has passed the Strait of Hormuz outbound to the Gulf of Oman.
Yet, the Nabiin is a tanker that was sent to a scrapyard in Bangladesh five years ago, Bloomberg reports, noting that the ship that’s flashed positioning in the Strait of Hormuz is likely a so-called zombie tanker. Such tankers assume the identity of scrapped legitimate vessels.
The Nabiin is not the only potentially zombie tanker that has transited the Strait of Hormuz in recent days.
At the end of last week, a vessel posing as a scrapped LNG carrier exited the Strait of Hormuz, Bloomberg reported on Friday.
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The vessel, Jamal, was the first known example of a potential zombie ship that has taken the identity of a legitimate tanker since the war in the Middle East began.
The Jamal was the name of a tanker sent in October 2025 to India scrapping.
The zombie tankers show the lengths to which vessel owners are going to move through the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of global daily oil and LNG flows passed before the war.
“Iran is sustaining selective maritime movement through a permission-based model, while also using Kooh Mobarak and the Goreh-Jask pipeline as a strategic export backdoor,” maritime intelligence firm Windward said on Friday.
Overall transit through the Strait of Hormuz has collapsed by 95% since February 28, but transit is now “increasingly selective and controlled, with vessels rerouting via Iranian territorial waters,” the intelligence firm said on Sunday.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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