An agent with the West African Gas Pipeline Company (Wapco), which operates the pipeline, told Reuters that the Aura M, a Liberian-flagged crude oil tanker, had loaded around one million barrels of oil from Niger at the Benin port on Tuesday.

The ship bound for China, where it was due to arrive on Oct. 10, the data showed. It was last spotted on Tuesday in the Gulf of Guinea, just off the West African coast.

Niger’s disputed ban on Benin related to political disagreements within the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS that led it to impose sanctions on Niger last year.

ECOWAS later lifted sanctions on Niger, after junta-led governments in the region coordinated to leave the regional bloc.