The US military has overseen scores of secretive ship-to-ship oil transfers to keep Gulf energy exports flowing, using aerial, water drones, and helicopters in an operation to guide convoys to awaiting tankers.

The operation on the edge of the Strait of Hormuz employs a shuttling technique long used by Iran to skirt sanctions. There were two specific locations, one off the coast of Fujairah in the UAE and the other off Omans port of Sohar, where the oil transfers take place.