A fleet of aging tankers is transporting sanctioned oil around the globe — and it's becoming an insurance nightmare because nobody knows who owns them

• Pablo, a Gabon-flagged tanker carrying Iranian oil caught fire off the coast of Malaysia last week.
• It's throwing up concerns about a fleet of secretive tankers transporting sanctioned oil globally. 
• Authorities still don't know who to approach for damages, per various media reports.

A fleet of aging tankers secretly transporting oil across the globe is becoming a cause for worry for two key reasons: we don't know who owns them, and we don't know who to go to for insurance purposes should they get into an accident.

The issue became evident last week when an oil tanker burst into flames off the coast of Malaysia.