Sanctioned at Sea: Addressing the Shadow Fleet
"Shipping in 2026 is going to get darker." - Michelle Wiese Bockmann, Senior Maritime Intelligence Analyst, Windward
Right now, somewhere between 900 and 2,000 aging oil tankers are operating in the shadows.
They are carrying sanctioned crude from Russia, Iran, and Venezuela. This so-called "shadow fleet" often sails under false flags, spoofs its locations, turns off monitoring systems, transfers their cargo at sea, and sometimes operates without insurance.
These dangerous vessels are increasingly being boarded, seized, escorted into port, and tied up in court, but enforcement at sea is…
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