Report: Panama Poised to Purge Sanctioned Tankers from Registry

After an extended pressure campaign from the United States and activist groups such as UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran) the Panama Maritime Authority is poised to purge its registry of sanctioned tankers. Bloomberg is citing comments by the General Director of Merchant Maine for PMA, Ramon Franco made during a conference in Singapore.

According to Bloomberg, Panama is poised to remove 128 ships from its registry. They are ships sanctioned by the U.S. or its allies. The new Trump administration has been moving to expand the sanctions against tankers in the Iranian trade following a sweeping move in the last days of the Biden administration targeting the shadow tanker fleet moving Russian oil and gas.

Bloomberg highlights the move by Panama was made possible by changes to the administration process and regulations making it easier to expel violators from Panama’s ship registry. The report says at least 70 tankers have already been removed but the administrators pledged to become more aggressive in their actions against sanctioned vessels and other violators.

Separately, Bloomberg is also reporting the Trump “maximum pressure” campaign appears to be having an effect on tanker movements and deliveries. The news outlet calculates that 11 tankers are currently idle or slow steaming in the area around Malaysia and Singapore. Bloomberg reports the tankers have 17 million barrels of oil loaded. Further, it says more than 20 tankers are anchored idle near Iran’s Kharg Island terminal.

Bloomberg’s report asserts that more than two-thirds of the tankers that handled Iranian crude in 2024 had been sanctioned as of late February. Analysts at TankerTracker.com taking the wider view however said early in March that the U.S. has “only blacklisted 234 (or 45 percent) of the 522 tankers involved in the Iran sanctions oil trade” as of the beginning of this month.

UANI has long been critical of Panama with the NGO asserting that Panama has 18 percent (96 vessels) of the 510 the group has listed in its “Ghost Armada List” tracking vessels in the Iranian oil trade. The group notes its list has grown from just 70 vessels when it started the listing in November 2020. They currently list nine tankers registered in Panama as having been sanctioned.

Panamanian officials have highlighted their efforts in recent years to clear the registry after a change in administration. As the largest ship registry by number of vessels, Panama has had a large number but a small percentage of violators in the registry. 

Despite the ongoing pressure effort, UANI reports Iran continues to ship large amounts of oil. The group cites data saying Iran shipped 1.7 million barrels in February up from 1.3 million the month before. China according to the data is the largest customer receiving nearly all the oil Iran ships.