Al Jazeera: Iranian oil sales continue at Malaysia's eastern anchorage despite the naval blockade

In a report published on Thursday 30 July 2026, Al Jazeera said activity at Malaysia's Eastern Outer Port Limits (EOPL), a 1,200-square-kilometre expanse of water in the South China Sea about 70km off the shore, has continued throughout the five-month war and despite the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, which ran from 13 April to 18 June and resumed on 14 July.

Satellite data reviewed by Al Jazeera on Thursday showed that over the past month, 18 Iranian-flagged oil tankers, including the tanker Humanity, arrived in the EOPL before going "dark" by switching off their automatic identification systems. At least 50 US or EU sanctioned ships were also broadcasting an AIS signal in the area on the same day. Ray Powell, director of the Stanford-affiliated maritime monitoring project SeaLight, said he has observed 62 ships broadcasting false or decommissioned identities since the start of the year while moving between the Persian Gulf, the EOPL, Hong Kong and northern China.

Erica Downs, a senior research scholar at Columbia University's Center on Global Energy Policy, said crude bound for China from Iran involves ship-to-ship transfers in international waters, sometimes repeated, to disguise the cargo's origin. The buyers are mainly small independent Chinese refineries that are less exposed to the US financial system.