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The NY Times published the results of a pretty interesting investigation today. The paper looked into how Russia continues to sell oil to China despite sanctions by spoofing transponder signals and by paying an American company for necessary insurance.
The story opens by looking closely at one oil tanker called the Cathay Phoenix. All ships carry a transponder which shows their location and which is not supposed to be turned off. Back in February, the Phoenix’s transponder showed it was making some odd moves in the middle of the Sea of Japan. But a satellite image taken at the same time showed there was no ship there at all. Another satellite photo showed the Phoenix was actually 250 miles away in a Russian port being loaded up with oil. The ship had been spoofing its location to avoid detection.
For years, ships wanting to hide their whereabouts have resorted to turning off the transponders all large vessels use to signal their location. But the tankers tracked by The Times go beyond this, using cutting-edge spoofing technology to make it appear they’re in one location when they’re really somewhere else.
During at least 13 voyages, the three tankers pretended to be sailing west of Japan.
