U.S. and Ukraine Target 'Dark Fleet' Smuggling Sanctioned Oil

A 1,000-strong dark fleet of rogue oil tankers skirting sanctions has emerged as a new target for the U.S. and Ukraine, according to senior maritime intelligence analyst Michelle Wiese Bockmann. She warns that this aging fleet poses geopolitical risks and threats of $1 billion oil spills.

Bockmann states that there are approximately 1,000 vessels trading sanctioned crude oil from Iran, Venezuela, and Russia, which are crucial for funding these regimes and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Recently, U.S. seizures of vessels in Venezuela and Ukrainian drone strikes in the Black Sea have marked a significant shift in efforts to disrupt this illicit trade.

Bockmann emphasizes that the dark fleet is a new problem for the U.S. and that Ukraine's involvement indicates a new strategy to counter gray-zone aggression. Ukrainian naval drone strikes have successfully targeted several tankers, including the Dashan, which is part of a shadow fleet assisting Russia in circumventing sanctions.

Bockmann describes the dangerous practices of these vessels, including false flagging and manipulating their Automatic Identification Systems, which leaves them uninsured and stateless. The U.S. has utilized legal tools, such as Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to board these stateless vessels and remove them from global trade.

Bockmann noted that recent actions include the seizure of the tanker Skipper, which was masking its location and was carrying 1.8 million barrels of oil. This seizure was framed as a sanctions-enforcement action by U.S.

Attorney General Pam Bondi. In the Black Sea, Ukraine has targeted tankers in ballast that were also falsely flagged, indicating a coordinated approach to tackling the dark fleet.