A ‘Huge’ Iranian Supertanker Just Gave the US Navy the Slip
A ‘Huge’ Iranian Supertanker Just Gave the US Navy the Slip
The appropriately-named Iranian oil tanker is known to have passed through the Strait of Hormuz, but there is no word of its current whereabouts.
“Huge” (or “yuge”) is one of President Donald Trump’s favorite superlatives, used in speeches to create an emotional, even hyperbolic response. Although there is no formal designation of “huge” in international shipping lingo, Iran has a fleet of tanker vessels that could be described as such.
The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), a subsidiary of the government-owned National Iranian Oil Company, operates some three dozen “Very Large Crude Carriers” (VLCCs), which have a total floating storage capacity of 65 to 75 million barrels. Most of these operate as part of a “ghost” fleet to evade US sanctions, sailing from port to port without declaring their cargo and leaving their ship transponders off.
Indeed, one of the Iranian vessels reportedly bypassed the US Navy blockade of the Strait of Hormuz last week, carrying more than 1.9 million barrels of crude oil valued at upwards of $220 million.
What makes this all the more noteworthy is this particular VLCC’s name.
“Her name is Huge (9357183), and we last sighted her off Sri Lanka over a week ago. She is currently traversing the Lombok Strait of Indonesia toward the Riau Archipelago. Until now, Huge has not transmitted on AIS since 2026-03-20, when she departed the Strait of Malacca for Iran,” TankerTrackers.com wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
The Huge had been at sea when the blockade began, but so far hasn’t been detained by US forces.
The US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has reportedly cost Tehran as much as $4.8 billion. However, it has cost the global economy far more, raising questions about how long it can persist in the absence of a US–Iran peace deal.
About the Huge Iranian Tanker
As with other VLCCs operated by NITC, the Huge may have been built in 1996 or 1997, but the exact date hasn’t been confirmed.
Even as the Islamic Republic has faced decades of international sanctions imposed by the United States, the country’s fleet of VLCCs was built in shipyards in China, Japan, and South Korea. Tokyo hasn’t directly imported oil from Iran, but it does receive 95 percent of its oil from the Middle East, with roughly 93 percent passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
China also builds and operates a “shadow fleet” of tankers on behalf of Iran, allowing Beijing to secure a cheap and reliable energy supply by evading US sanctions. China remains Iran’s largest trading partner, receiving as much as 90 percent of Tehran’s oil—mostly refined in independent “teapot” refineries, giving Beijing plausible deniability when faced with accusations of sanctions evasions.
At least a dozen supertankers operated by NITC can be traced to Chinese shipyards. In addition, Chinese-owned or chartered VLCCs are used to move oil from the Middle East to China to avoid sanctions.
Iran Is Using Other Paralyzed Tankers for Oil Storage
Tehran is now employing another large—but not “huge”—tanker as an emergency floating storage facility. The VLCC Nasha (IMO 9079107) may not attempt to run the US blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, but it is now near Kharg Island, holding up to 2 million barrels of oil.
That vessel is notable as it has been labeled a “ghost ship” for being inactive for years.
“The ongoing US blockade amid the 2-month-old war restricts Tehran’s exports and forces it to store rather than sell its energy,” Newsweek wrote—adding that Tehran may have as many as 18 additional empty supertankers that could be repurposed as “floating storage” for oil that is still being produced but cannot be exported through Hormuz.
Still, that could only buy Iran a few days, and the clock is ticking before Iran faces a storage crisis for its oil. If Tehran runs out of storage options, it may be forced to take more drastic measures—namely shutting down its oil wells, a step that many wells are not built for. Although oil wells can often be shut down in minutes to a day, depending on the measures used, it could take months or longer to reopen them. Some concerns are that temporarily closing a well could affect the reservoir and reduce the facility’s throughput for years to come.
Whether that is enough to convince Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is unclear, but it is a huge problem that Iran will need to solve quickly.
About the Author: Peter Suciu
Peter Suciu has contributed to dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites over a 30-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a contributing writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. He is based in Michigan. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu. You can email the author: Editor@nationalinterest.org.
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