Mystery Tanker

[pieter melissen]

Currently at anchor near Rotterdam is the tanker Golden Royal.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/shipid:6773935/mmsi:538926400/imo:0/vessel:GOLDEN_ROYAL/_:86be4383085af0143f6bae30b18aa7dc

No IMO number only an MMSI number. She arrived from Tema, Ghana, and no further movements are reported.

Her dimensions would indicate that she is a VLCC albeit that her 62 meters width is two more than all current VLCC designs. 

Any guesses about what her identity is? An Iranian ship waiting for the oil embargo to be lifted?

[Adrian Ford]

Hello Pieter

13 days to travel that amount???/

[pieter melissen]

Hello Adrian, Look at speed recorded: Maximum 29 knots, average 17.3...a very strange tanker this one

[davidships]

Liberian call-sign
Marshall Islands MMSI
JOHN AUGUSTUS ESSBERGER just sailed right by - suspect that there was nothing on her radar

[pieter melissen]

Her AIS was switched off (nine hours ago), if there ever was one..

[pieter melissen]

The Golden Royal is back at Rotterdam Anchorage.
Next to her some 23 hours ago is the INFRA QUEEN also coming from Tema.

https://www.marinetraffic.com/ka/ais/details/ships/shipid:6653919/mmsi:241119906/imo:0/vessel:INFRA_QUEEN which is even documented with photographs...(sort of)

[Tuomas Romu]

I wonder what's the actual name of the tanker in the photographs...

[Aleksi Lindström]

I wonder what's the actual name of the tanker in the photographs...

Name when the photo was taken was NEPTUNE GLORY, IMO 9165346.

See here the original photo:
https://photos.marinetraffic.com/ais/showphoto.aspx?photoid=336546

The ship was converted to FSO, Oil in 2014 and renamed TULJA BHAVANI. The vessel is currently in the Gulf of Guinea. But which ship, if any, is the one that should be at Rotterdam roads...?

Brgds,
Aleksi

[davidships]

But which ship, if any, is the one that should be at Rotterdam roads...?

The importand words are probably "if any"
Just Google "spoof AIS", for example:
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/11/5015/pdf

[pieter melissen]

but whom would they try to fool in this case? The people at Marine Traffic who upload shots like this?

[davidships]

We touched on AIS fakery here, and elsewhere from time to time.

An interesting note relevant to that just out from the International Group of P&I Clubs, ie insurers.
https://cts.lmsslsecure.com/t/6214258/96094687/76321/18/

[pieter melissen]

link does not open.

[victor radio74]

Ii opens for me in a pdf

[pieter melissen]

Ii opens for me in a pdf

for me too, probably it always did but I never thought about looking there, but it is a worrying development. As soon as making money (taxfree of course) is involved, the shipping systems seem to offer easy opportunities. With this knowledge, we can safely assume that the FPSO Golden Royal was involved in illegal oil transfers.