Dark Fleet
Ageing, opaquely owned and often uninsured tankers that move sanctioned oil while disguising their movements.
The "dark fleet" (or "shadow fleet") describes vessels — typically older tankers with murky ownership and substandard or absent mainstream insurance — used to carry sanctioned crude and products outside normal compliance channels. They rely on tactics like AIS gaps, identity manipulation and ship-to-ship transfers to obscure cargo origin.
On the platform we do not label any vessel a "dark-fleet" ship from our own analysis. We surface the underlying factual signals separately — official sanctions designations (OFAC / EU / UK / UN) on one hand, and observed AIS behaviour such as signal gaps, hull age and STS activity on the other — as indicators for your own screening, not as a determination.
On The Maritime
Also known as: dark fleet, shadow fleet, ghost fleet.
Related terms
Automatic Identification SystemAIS
A VHF transponder system that broadcasts a ship’s identity, position, course and speed for collision avoidance and tracking.
Ship-to-Ship TransferSTS
Transferring cargo directly between two vessels moored alongside, often at anchor or offshore rather than at a terminal.
Sanctions
Government measures restricting trade or dealings with designated entities, vessels, cargoes or jurisdictions.
AIS Spoofing
Falsifying a ship’s broadcast position or identity on AIS to disguise where she really is or what she really is.
Plain-English reference definition — our own explanation of a standard shipping concept, not a licensed source or legal advice. See the full glossary or the broader maritime dictionary.
Last reviewed: June 2026.