Tanker Spoofing Its Location Seen Taking Sanctioned LNG to China

A tanker carrying US-sanctioned Russian liquefied natural gas and masking its location was spotted near China, according to SynMax, suggesting Beijing is stepping up its efforts to buy the fuel.

CCH Gas, a vessel with a registered owner in Hong Kong, was detected southeast of the island of Hainan in southern China on Monday, the satellite-analytics company said. The ship has been signaling that it is near the eastern coast of Malaysia since late-October, apparently ‘spoofing’ its location, a common dark-fleet tactic to avoid detection.