30-year-old tanker linked with Iran drifting along Norway’s Arctic coast
For more than two weeks, a 241-metre-long oil tanker sailing under a false Nicaraguan flag has criss-crossed the Norwegian-Russian maritime border in the Barents Sea. The Padre is connected with a Russian company accused of weapons shipments from Iran.
According to ship traffic data, the Padre (IMO 9116632) has been situated in the area of the Norwegian-Russian maritime border for more than two weeks. The tanker, which previously sailed under the names Narval and Polar Rock, is on a US sanctions list because of its alleged links with the Iranian regime.
The tanker is believed to have loaded oil in Murmansk, setting out from the Kola Bay on 19 October. Its destination is not clear, and neither is the reason why it remains in the waters off the Norwegian-Russian Arctic coast.
Although the name of the shipowner has changed repeatedly over the last five years, the Padre is likely to remain connected with MG-Flot, a company with close connections to the Russian state.
According to the US Department of State, vessels belonging to MG-Flot were involved in the transfer of close-range ballistic missiles from Iran to Russia in 2024. In late 2025, one of the company’s ships delivered air defence vehicles and related materiel from Iran to Russia.
The company has also been involved in weapons deliveries to and from North Korea.
According to Equasis, an electronic ship information system, the registered owner of the Padre was Transfin-M PC and Marine Trans Shipping LLC in the period 2021–2026. Since April 2026, the tanker has been owned by an unknown company named Equilibrio Perfecto Maritime.
All the entities are likely to be interconnected.
According to Equasis, the Padre has sailed under a false Nicaraguan flag since 1 August 2026. Prior to that, it sailed under the Russian flag.
Murmansk has one of Russia’s biggest commercial seaports, handling large volumes of crude oil—much of it produced in Arctic fields and exported through transshipment operations in the Kola Bay. Almost all the tankers exporting oil from Murmansk belong to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet.
The Barents Observer has reached out to the Norwegian Coastal Administration with a question about whether it intends to follow up on the Padre. The Coastal Administration had not responded by the time of publishing this article.
