Frequently asked questions
131 short answers about sanctioned vessels and the shadow fleet. Each one comes from an explainer, which gives the full reasoning and cites the official documents; follow the link under an answer to read it.
Foundations
What the shadow fleet is, how a ship gets sanctioned, and what each kind of listing actually prohibits.
What is the shadow fleet?
A loose name for tankers and other ships that carry sanctioned cargo while operating outside the ownership, insurance and classification arrangements the rest of world shipping uses. It describes behaviour, not a legal status: no regulation defines it and no authority publishes a register of it.
How many ships are in the shadow fleet?
Nobody can say exactly, because each count answers a different question. Published estimates in 2026 ran from about a thousand to well over fourteen hundred ships. The countable part is the ships an authority has named: as of 2 October 2026, 1,983 hulls are currently listed by at least one of eight authorities (the UN, US, UK, EU, Switzerland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand), and 59% of them by only one.
Is 'shadow fleet' a legal term?
No. No sanctions regulation defines it. Authorities list individual vessels by IMO number under specific legal grounds; the phrase is a description used by analysts, journalists and, increasingly, by the IMO itself.
Why do published estimates of the fleet's size disagree so much?
Because each count answers a different question: which vessel types and sizes are included, whether a single sanctioned voyage is enough to qualify, and whether the count is of designated vessels or of vessels behaving in a certain way. Counts of designated vessels are reproducible; counts of behaviour are estimates.
Is every shadow-fleet vessel sanctioned?
No, and this is the most common misreading. Most analyst counts include vessels that no authority has listed. This site only holds vessels that appear on an official list, so its totals are deliberately narrower than a behavioural estimate.
Is it only Russia?
No. The same practices were used for Iranian and Venezuelan oil and by North Korea long before 2022. The ships on the lists are named under many programmes, which is why the largest list, the US one, is not a Russia list alone.
Is it illegal for a ship to be in the shadow fleet?
Being opaque is not itself unlawful. What is prohibited depends on the jurisdiction and the specific measure: carrying Russian crude above the price cap using Western services, entering an EU port while listed in Annex XLII, or dealing with a vessel whose property is blocked by OFAC.
Which flags do these ships use?
Among the 1,983 listed hulls, the most common current flags in this database are Panama (341), Russia (309), Iran (192), China (159), Barbados (89), Palau (72) and Comoros (71), with 162 recorded without a flag. The lists do not date flag changes, so this is the flag most recently recorded, not a verified registry history.
Does being on one list put a vessel on the others?
No. Each authority designates under its own law and on its own timetable. A large share of the hulls in this database are listed by only one of the three, and the gaps are visible on the statistics page.
From How a ship gets sanctioned: OFAC, the UK and the EU compared
Where do I find the reason a vessel was listed?
The UK publishes a statement of reasons in the list entry itself. The EU prints grounds in the annex, citing a point of Article 3s(2). OFAC's SDN entry carries no reason, so the reasoning must be read from the Recent Actions notice and the Treasury press release of that day.
From How a ship gets sanctioned: OFAC, the UK and the EU compared
How quickly does a listing take effect?
US and UK designations bite on publication. EU listings apply from the date of application stated in the amending regulation, which the annex prints alongside each vessel.
From How a ship gets sanctioned: OFAC, the UK and the EU compared
Can a vessel be listed without its owner being listed?
Yes, and this is common in the EU and UK regimes, where the ship itself is the target. In the US programs a vessel is often reached as blocked property of a designated owner, but OFAC also designates hulls directly.
From How a ship gets sanctioned: OFAC, the UK and the EU compared
What is the check digit?
The seventh digit. Multiply the first six digits by 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2, add the products, and the last digit of that sum must equal the seventh digit. It catches most typing errors, and this site rejects any IMO number that fails it.
From IMO numbers: why seven digits are the spine of every sanctions list
Is the MMSI the same thing?
No. The MMSI is a nine-digit radio identity assigned by the flag state. It changes when the ship changes flag, so it identifies a transmission rather than permanently identifying a hull.
From IMO numbers: why seven digits are the spine of every sanctions list
Do companies have IMO numbers too?
Yes, and this trips people up. Registered owners and ISM managers get numbers under the same scheme. A sanctions entry may print 'Identification Number IMO' followed by seven digits for a company, which is not a ship.
From IMO numbers: why seven digits are the spine of every sanctions list
Can two ships share an IMO number?
They should not. Numbers are not reused after a ship is scrapped. Where a fraudulently registered vessel claims another ship's number, the correct response is to treat the claim as suspect, not to merge the records.
From IMO numbers: why seven digits are the spine of every sanctions list
Can a vessel be barred from EU ports but still trade legally?
Yes. An Annex XLII listing prohibits port access and services within the EU. A vessel carrying non-EU cargo between non-EU ports, insured outside the EU, is not breaking that regulation by continuing to trade.
From Asset freeze, port ban, services ban: what each listing actually prohibits
Does an asset freeze mean the ship is seized?
No. Freezing is not seizing. It prohibits dealings with the property. A ship is only physically detained when a state with jurisdiction over it takes that separate step, on its own legal basis.
From Asset freeze, port ban, services ban: what each listing actually prohibits
Which measure hurts most commercially?
Usually the services ban, because insurance, class and banking are concentrated in a small number of providers. A hull can avoid European ports easily; replacing credible protection and indemnity cover is much harder.
From Asset freeze, port ban, services ban: what each listing actually prohibits
Can a vessel be under all three at once?
Yes. A hull designated by OFAC, specified by the UK and listed in Annex XLII faces blocking sanctions, a UK port ban and an EU port and services ban simultaneously, each with its own scope.
From Asset freeze, port ban, services ban: what each listing actually prohibits
Is the price cap a ban on Russian oil?
No. It is a condition on services. Coalition-linked shipping, insurance and brokering may be used for Russian crude and products only where the cargo was bought at or below the cap price.
Who signs an attestation?
Parties along the transaction chain, according to how much price information they have. Those closest to the trade attest to the price; service providers further out rely on the attestations they receive and are expected to do proportionate due diligence.
What happens if the attestation is false?
The service provider that relied on it in good faith and kept records is generally not the enforcement target; the party that provided false information is. Coalition guidance has repeatedly tightened what 'good faith' requires, including per-voyage attestations and itemised cost information on request.
Why does the cap push vessels out of the mainstream fleet?
Because a cargo sold above the cap cannot lawfully use coalition services. The trade then needs ships, insurance and brokers outside that system, which is the commercial engine behind the shadow fleet.
Is it one fleet serving all four?
Hulls do move between trades, and some operators appear in listings connected to more than one origin, but these are largely separate commercial systems with different routes, buyers and intermediaries.
From Who uses the shadow fleet: Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea
Which is the largest by tonnage?
The Russian trade, by a wide margin, because the volumes are far larger and the shift happened suddenly after 2022. In this database the Russia-related programs account for the majority of listed hulls.
From Who uses the shadow fleet: Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea
Why do Iranian-linked vessels appear on lists years before the others?
Because US sanctions on Iranian oil exports and shipping have run, with interruptions, since the 2010s. Several vessels in this database were first designated more than a decade ago.
From Who uses the shadow fleet: Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea
Does the UN list vessels?
For North Korea, yes: the Security Council's 1718 Committee designates vessels, and states then implement those designations in their own law, which is why some UK ship entries record their source as the UN.
From Who uses the shadow fleet: Russia, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea
How do I tell a company number from a ship number?
Run the check digit. An IMO ship number's seventh digit is a checksum of the first six; a company number carries no such check and fails it about nine times in ten. If it passes, look at what the record describes: a company number sits on an entity whose name is a company and whose remark describes a business.
From IMO company numbers: the seven digits that are not a ship
Do the two ranges overlap?
They are separate schemes that happen to share a format, and a company number can coincidentally pass the ship check digit. The check digit is a filter, not a proof, which is why this site also looks at what the record says it is.
From IMO company numbers: the seven digits that are not a ship
Why do sanctions lists print them at all?
Because they are useful. A company number identifies an owner or manager across renames and re-registrations, exactly as a ship number does for a hull. The problem is not the number, it is reading it in the wrong column.
From IMO company numbers: the seven digits that are not a ship
Evasion mechanics
Flags, registries, AIS, transfers at sea and ownership chains: how the practices work and what they leave behind in the data.
Is a flag of convenience illegal?
No. Open registers are lawful and carry most of the world's tonnage. The law of the sea requires a genuine link between ship and flag state, but registration itself is a normal commercial choice about cost, tax and crewing.
So why is flag-hopping a warning sign?
Because a normal trading career involves few flag changes, usually tied to a sale. A hull that changes registry several times in a year, especially right after a designation or a detention, is solving a paperwork problem rather than a commercial one.
What happens if no registry will take the ship?
It may end up without valid nationality. That is a much weaker position: a stateless vessel has no flag state to protect it, and warships of any state may board a vessel reasonably suspected of being without nationality.
Can the flag on this site be trusted as current?
It is the flag the listing authority printed when it listed the hull. Registries move faster than sanctions lists, so treat every flag here as 'last recorded by that authority', with the date shown.
What is a fraudulent registry?
An operation that issues ship registration documents without the authority of the state whose flag it purports to represent. The IMO treats the submission of fraudulent documentation, without the knowledge of the cognizant flag state authority, as fraudulent representation.
How is that different from a flag of convenience?
Completely different. An open register is a real government function, lawfully delegated and internationally recognised. A fraudulent registry has no such authority at all, and the state whose flag appears on the paperwork usually says so publicly.
What happens to a ship flying a false flag?
It may have no valid nationality. Under the law of the sea a ship without nationality enjoys none of the protection a flag state provides, and warships of any state may board a vessel reasonably suspected of being without nationality.
Does this site label registries as fraudulent?
Only where an authority or the purported flag state has said so. The field exists in the data model and is deliberately left empty until each case can be tied to a published circular, because calling a registry fraudulent is a serious claim.
Is switching off AIS illegal?
Not automatically. SOLAS requires the system to be operated at all times except where an international agreement or standard provides for protection of navigational information, and it lets the master switch it off where continued operation would compromise the ship's safety. That exception is narrow, and it must be logged.
So why do authorities cite AIS gaps?
Because a pattern of long, repeated gaps in specific areas is a risk indicator. Official advisories treat it as a prompt to ask questions, not as evidence of a breach on its own.
What is spoofing?
Broadcasting false data: a fabricated position, another ship's identity, or a voyage that never happened. Detecting it means comparing the broadcast against something independent, such as imagery or physical observation.
Does this site publish AIS tracks?
No. It is not a tracker. Vessel pages carry sanctions records, not positions, and nothing here should be used to locate a ship.
Are ship-to-ship transfers illegal?
No. They are a standard commercial operation, used for lightering into shallow ports, for consolidating parcels and for floating storage. What draws attention is an unreported transfer, at night, in international waters, involving a designated vessel.
Why do transfers happen in the same few places?
Because the conditions are right: sheltered water, deep enough draft, outside a coastal state's enforcement interest, and near the shipping lanes the cargo is heading for. Those constraints produce a small number of well-known anchorages.
Can a transfer be detected?
Often, but rarely from one source alone. Two vessels at matching low speed in close proximity, followed by a change in their reported drafts, is the classic signature. Confirming it usually needs imagery.
Does a transfer clean the cargo legally?
No. Sanctions attach to the origin of the goods and to the persons involved, not to the paperwork. A transfer changes what documents say, not what the law covers.
Why does every ship have its own company?
Liability. If a vessel causes a spill, claimants reach the company that owns it. Owning each hull separately stops one casualty from taking down a fleet. Banks lending against a ship also prefer a clean single-asset borrower.
From Ownership onions: how to read a shipping ownership chain
Then how do you tell an ordinary structure from an evasive one?
By what changes and when. A structure that has been stable for years is a tax and liability arrangement. A structure created weeks before a purchase, in a jurisdiction that publishes nothing, whose manager changes days after a designation, is doing something else.
From Ownership onions: how to read a shipping ownership chain
Does this site publish beneficial ownership?
No. It records the owner or operator each authority printed, dated and attributed. Sanctions lists rarely state beneficial ownership, and asserting it without a source would be a claim about identifiable people.
From Ownership onions: how to read a shipping ownership chain
What is the difference between the owner and the ISM manager?
The registered owner holds title. The ISM manager has assumed responsibility for safe operation under the International Safety Management Code, including crewing and maintenance. They are often different companies, and the manager is usually the one that changes after a designation.
From Ownership onions: how to read a shipping ownership chain
Why does the manager change rather than the owner?
Because changing title creates a registry transaction, a mortgage question and a tax event, while changing the ISM manager is a commercial appointment. It is the cheapest layer to move, and it is the layer that insurers and class societies deal with day to day.
From Management churn: what happens in the weeks after a designation
Is changing manager after a designation unlawful?
Not in itself. It becomes a problem when the new manager is a front for the designated party, or when the change is used to obtain services that would otherwise be refused. Authorities have designated successor managers where they concluded that was happening.
From Management churn: what happens in the weeks after a designation
Can I see the sequence on this site?
Partly. Where two authorities list the same hull at different times, their records preserve two snapshots of owner, manager and flag, and the difference between them is the change. Exact dates are not published by any of the lists.
From Management churn: what happens in the weeks after a designation
What is the single most useful check?
Compare the ISM manager named at the most recent designation with the one named earlier, then look at when the newer company was incorporated. A manager younger than the designation is the pattern worth pursuing.
From Management churn: what happens in the weeks after a designation
What does P&I insurance actually cover?
Third-party liabilities rather than the ship itself: oil pollution, wreck removal, crew injury and death, cargo claims, collision liabilities. The sums involved after a tanker casualty are far beyond the value of the vessel.
From Insurance and class: the two certificates that decide whether a tanker can trade
Can a tanker trade without recognised cover?
Physically yes, and many do. The constraint is practical: many ports and canals require evidence of cover, and a coastal state facing a spill needs an insurer that will actually pay.
From Insurance and class: the two certificates that decide whether a tanker can trade
Who pays if an uninsured tanker spills oil?
In the first instance the shipowner, which is usually a single-ship company with one asset that has just been damaged. Where the international pollution compensation regime applies it provides a further layer, but recovery depends on the ship being within the regime and on the certificates being genuine.
From Insurance and class: the two certificates that decide whether a tanker can trade
Why does class matter for sanctions?
Because classification is one of the services the EU and UK regimes prohibit for listed vessels, and because losing a widely recognised society makes port state control inspections harder to pass.
From Insurance and class: the two certificates that decide whether a tanker can trade
How often can a ship be renamed?
As often as its owner wants. A change of name is a registry formality, and there is no international limit on how many times it can happen.
Does the sanctions listing follow the new name?
It follows the IMO number, which does not change. Authorities generally update the name in their records at the next revision, and some print the old name as an alias, but the designation attaches to the hull.
Why do lists show different names for the same ship?
Because each authority recorded the name in use when it listed the vessel. Three authorities listing across two years produce up to three names, all correct on their own date.
How do I know which name is current?
Take the name from the most recently dated listing, then verify against a ship-particulars source. This site follows exactly that rule and shows every other name it holds, with the source for each.
Is there an age limit for tankers?
No international one. Age is governed indirectly through surveys, class requirements and commercial choice: major charterers vet ships and generally decline older tonnage, which is what usually retires a vessel rather than any rule.
Why did old tankers suddenly become valuable?
Because a trade appeared that mainstream tonnage could not serve. When a cargo cannot use coalition shipping and insurance, the ships available are the ones with nothing left to lose commercially, and their price rises above scrap value.
Does age alone make a ship unsafe?
No. A well-maintained older ship with real class and competent management can be safe. The risk comes from age combined with deferred maintenance, weak class, unproven insurance and management churn.
What does this site show about age?
The age distribution of the whole listed fleet on the statistics page, and each vessel's year of build where an authority states it. Those figures come from the lists themselves.
Are crews complicit in sanctions evasion?
The public record does not support saying that of seafarers generally. Crews are employed to sail ships; decisions about cargo origin, documentation and transfers are taken ashore. Where an individual has been designated, that is stated in the designation and appears on the relevant record.
What happens to a crew when a vessel is designated?
The risks are practical: unpaid wages if the operator loses banking access, difficulty obtaining shore leave or medical care, and difficulty being repatriated if the vessel is detained or abandoned. Abandonment cases are tracked by the international bodies that deal with seafarers' welfare.
Does this site name crew members?
No. Individuals appear only where an official designation names them, and no crew list is published here. Naming a seafarer because of the ship they sailed on would be exactly the kind of unsourced inference the editorial rules forbid.
Why does crewing appear in sanctions regulations at all?
Because crewing is one of the maritime services that the EU and UK regimes prohibit providing to listed vessels. The prohibition is aimed at the companies that supply the service.
Enforcement and law
Boardings, delistings, secondary exposure and where allies disagree.
Can a warship stop a tanker on the high seas because it is sanctioned?
Not on that basis alone. On the high seas a ship is subject to its flag state. Boarding without consent requires a specific legal basis: a treaty, a Security Council authorisation, or one of the narrow grounds in the law of the sea, of which the relevant one here is reasonable suspicion that the ship is without nationality.
From Boardings, seizures and detentions: what a state may actually do
What is the 'check your flag' approach?
Asking a passing vessel to state its registration and insurance. It is a request, not an interdiction, and refusing to answer is itself informative. It works because a fraudulently registered ship cannot give an answer that survives checking.
From Boardings, seizures and detentions: what a state may actually do
What is the difference between detention and seizure?
Detention keeps a ship in port until deficiencies are fixed, and is an ordinary port-state safety power. Seizure takes the vessel or cargo, and needs a substantive legal basis such as a court order, customs law or a sanctions enforcement power in domestic law.
From Boardings, seizures and detentions: what a state may actually do
Does a sanctions listing authorise anyone to take the ship?
No. A designation is a prohibition on dealings, and in some jurisdictions a basis for blocking property that comes within reach. Physically taking a vessel is a separate act under separate law.
From Boardings, seizures and detentions: what a state may actually do
What makes a ship stateless?
No valid registration, registration by an entity the purported state never authorised, or sailing under two or more flags according to convenience. The law of the sea treats a ship using flags of convenience in that alternating way as having no nationality at all.
Why does statelessness matter more than a bad flag?
Because nationality is what gives a ship a protector. A stateless vessel has no flag state to assert jurisdiction, object to interference, or take responsibility for it, and warships may board on reasonable suspicion of statelessness.
Is asking a ship about its flag legal?
Asking is not an exercise of enforcement jurisdiction at all. A state may query a vessel by radio in waters where it has an interest; the vessel may decline to answer. What the exchange produces is information, which may or may not support a stronger step.
How does this site record it?
Where an authority states a flag it cannot verify, or marks a claim as false, the vessel is coded as having no valid flag rather than being attributed to a state that never registered it.
What are the usual reasons a vessel is removed?
Scrapping or loss, a change of ownership that breaks the link the designation relied on, a successful challenge, or a policy decision by the sanctioning state. Administrative tidying also happens, including consolidating duplicate records.
Does one authority removing a vessel affect the others?
No. Each list is separate. A hull can be removed by one authority and remain listed by two others, which is why this site records status per authority rather than as a single label.
How do you know when a removal happened?
Sometimes the authority says so: OFAC publishes dated removal notices, New Zealand publishes a deletion date and reason. Otherwise the removal is detected by comparing yesterday's list with today's, and the date is marked as inferred.
Can a delisted vessel be relisted?
Yes, and it happens. That is one reason this site keeps the full history rather than deleting the record when a vessel comes off a list.
What is a general licence?
A published authorisation permitting a class of transactions that would otherwise be prohibited, available to anyone whose facts fit the conditions. No application is needed, but the conditions must be read carefully and usually include reporting.
Do licences mean the vessel is no longer sanctioned?
No. A licence permits specified activity; the designation stands. Wind-down licences in particular are time-limited and exist to let existing contracts be closed out, not to allow new business.
Is there an exception for saving a ship in distress?
Sanctions regimes generally provide authorisations for transactions needed to address a maritime casualty or prevent environmental damage, because refusing salvage services to a stricken tanker would harm the state imposing the sanction more than the target.
Where do I find them?
OFAC publishes general licences alongside its actions; the UK publishes general licences through OFSI; the EU's exceptions are written into the regulations themselves as derogations that national competent authorities apply.
What are secondary sanctions?
Measures that expose a person outside the sanctioning state to sanctions for dealing with certain designated targets, even with no other connection to that state. The US uses them in several programs; the EU and UK regimes are built differently.
From Secondary sanctions: why a port agent in a third country cares
How is that different from ordinary jurisdiction?
Ordinary sanctions bind the state's own persons and anything touching its territory or currency. Secondary sanctions reach conduct wholly outside, by threatening the actor with designation rather than by asserting authority over the conduct.
From Secondary sanctions: why a port agent in a third country cares
Who actually feels it?
Banks first, then insurers, classification societies, port agents, bunker suppliers and traders. Most exposure is managed by refusal rather than by litigation: the counterparty simply declines the business.
From Secondary sanctions: why a port agent in a third country cares
Does the EU object to this?
The EU has a blocking statute for certain US measures, which creates a genuine conflict for firms caught between the two. That conflict is a legal question for advisers, not something this site resolves.
From Secondary sanctions: why a port agent in a third country cares
Why do the lists differ at all?
Because each authority designates under its own law, on its own evidence, on its own timetable, and to serve its own policy. There is no treaty obliging any of them to mirror the others, outside the UN designations that all members implement.
From Divergence between allies: what the US lists that the EU does not
Does a vessel listed by only one authority still trade?
Generally yes, outside that jurisdiction. A hull barred from EU ports can load and discharge elsewhere with services from outside the EU, which is why the size of the single-authority population matters.
From Divergence between allies: what the US lists that the EU does not
Which authority lists the most vessels?
In this database the US SDN List carries the largest number of hulls, because it covers Iran, Venezuela and North Korea trades as well as Russia. The EU and UK lists are more concentrated on Russia.
From Divergence between allies: what the US lists that the EU does not
Do the lists converge over time?
Partly. Hulls do get picked up by additional authorities after an initial listing, and the statistics page measures the typical gap. But a large share of vessels remain listed by one authority only.
From Divergence between allies: what the US lists that the EU does not
Does appearing on the Ukrainian portal mean a vessel is sanctioned?
No. It means Ukraine's military intelligence has catalogued the vessel as associated with sanctioned trades. It creates no legal prohibition in any jurisdiction, including Ukraine's own sanctions decrees, which are separate instruments.
From Ukraine's War & Sanctions portal: what it is and what it is not
Why include it at all?
Because it is the largest public catalogue of its kind and it often names vessels months before any authority designates them. Used as a cross-reference and clearly labelled, it is informative. Merged into sanctions counts, it would be misleading.
From Ukraine's War & Sanctions portal: what it is and what it is not
How does this site show it?
As its own badge on the vessel page, excluded from every 'sanctioned by' count. A hull that appears only there is marked as catalogued but not legally designated.
From Ukraine's War & Sanctions portal: what it is and what it is not
What does this site take from the portal?
Only the vessel name, IMO number and a link back to the portal's own record. The narrative material stays there, which is both an editorial choice and what the portal's stated terms support.
From Ukraine's War & Sanctions portal: what it is and what it is not
Is cable damage the same issue as sanctions?
No, and conflating them is a mistake. They intersect because the same vessels are involved: old ships, opaque ownership, uncertain insurance, operating in a sea crossed by critical infrastructure.
From Undersea cables and the Baltic: when a sanctions story became a security one
Can a state prosecute a ship for dragging an anchor?
It depends on where the damage happened and the vessel's nationality. Jurisdiction over a foreign ship outside the territorial sea is limited, which is why cases have turned on where the vessel was and whether it entered a state's waters afterwards.
From Undersea cables and the Baltic: when a sanctions story became a security one
Why does insurance matter here?
Because repairing an interconnector costs enormous sums. If the vessel responsible has no cover that can meet the claim, the cost falls on the infrastructure owner and ultimately on consumers.
From Undersea cables and the Baltic: when a sanctions story became a security one
Does this site record cable incidents?
The data model has an incidents table covering seizures, boardings, detentions and casualties, and each entry requires a dated source. Incidents are populated only where a primary or major-outlet source exists.
From Undersea cables and the Baltic: when a sanctions story became a security one
Practical guides
How to check a ship, how to read each authority's entry, and what to do with what you find.
Can I search by vessel name?
You can start there, but never finish there. Names repeat across unrelated hulls and change often. Resolve the name to an IMO number first, then search by number.
Is one search of a commercial screening tool enough?
For a compliance decision of record, no. Check the authoritative list for each jurisdiction that matters to you. Aggregators lag, and their coverage of the EU port-ban list is uneven because those vessels are absent from the EU financial sanctions file.
The ship is not listed but its owner is. What then?
In US practice a vessel in which a blocked person holds a property interest can itself be blocked whether or not it is named. Treat an unlisted hull with a listed owner as a serious flag, not a clean result.
How current is this site?
It refreshes nightly from the official sources and stamps every page with the time of the last refresh. For a decision of record, use the authorities' own lists, which every page here links to.
Why does the same vessel have different tonnages on different lists?
Because the authorities print different measures. OFAC publishes both a 'Vessel Tonnage' figure, which is deadweight, and a 'Gross Registered Tonnage'. The UK prints a single unlabelled tonnage figure. Do not compare them without checking which is which.
What does '(Linked To: …)' mean in an OFAC entry?
It records a relationship the designation relies on, most often that the vessel is owned or controlled by the named designated party. It is a statement about the listing, not an independent finding of beneficial ownership.
Why do some UK entries have a name like 'IMO 9058713 ("AVAX")'?
It is a formatting convention in the source: the quoted string is the vessel name. Read the quoted text as the name and the digits as the IMO number.
What does 'formerly' mean in the EU annex?
The vessel has been renamed since a relevant event, and the annex prints the earlier name in parentheses so that a reader searching the old name still finds the entry.
Is an AIS gap enough to refuse business?
On its own, no. Gaps occur for equipment, coverage and safety reasons. Official advisories treat repeated, prolonged gaps in high-risk areas as a reason to ask questions and document the answers, not as proof of a breach.
From Red flags for charterers, brokers, port agents and insurers
What is the single strongest indicator?
A counterparty or vessel connected to a designated person. That is not a risk indicator but a compliance issue in its own right, because dealings with blocked property can be prohibited outright.
From Red flags for charterers, brokers, port agents and insurers
How much diligence is enough?
Coalition and OFSI guidance frames it as proportionate to your position in the chain and your access to information, with records kept. Firms closer to the price and cargo are expected to know more than those further out.
From Red flags for charterers, brokers, port agents and insurers
Do these checks apply outside the price cap?
Yes. The 2020 US global advisory predates the cap and covers Iran, North Korea and Syria trades; the underlying practices are the same.
From Red flags for charterers, brokers, port agents and insurers
What is the single most common error in tanker reporting?
Writing that a vessel is 'sanctioned' without naming the authority. A large share of hulls are listed by only one of the main authorities, so the unqualified claim is usually false somewhere.
Can I rely on a commercial tracking screenshot?
For a position claim, treat it as one source that needs a second. Platforms reconstruct tracks from incomplete feeds, and cannot always distinguish a vessel switching off from a signal not being received.
How do I describe a vessel that is only in Ukraine's catalogue?
As catalogued by Ukrainian military intelligence, and not designated by any sanctions authority. That is a real fact and it is not the same as being sanctioned.
What should I ask the owner for comment on?
The specific claims: that the authority listed this hull on this date under this instrument, that the stated reason is as published, and that the company named is the one the authority named. Those are checkable; characterisations are not.
Why does a vessel page sometimes show two different current flags?
Because two authorities printed different flags when they listed the hull. The site keeps both, marks the one from the most recent listing as current, and shows which source stated each.
What does 'date inferred' mean on a timeline?
That no authority published a date for the event. The vessel was on a list one day and gone the next, so the removal is dated to the day it was noticed and labelled as inferred rather than stated.
Why are some list entries not attached to any vessel page?
Because they carry no IMO number. They are held as candidates with a confidence score, and only surfaced on a vessel page when name plus at least one structural attribute agree.
How often does the data change?
The pipeline runs nightly. Every page shows the timestamp of the last successful refresh, and the changes section lists what moved on any given day.
Money and sanctions
Where shipping sanctions meet financial crime.
Is sanctions evasion a predicate offence for money laundering?
In many jurisdictions yes, either directly or through the underlying conduct such as fraud or false documentation. The precise position depends on national law, which is a question for legal advice rather than for a dataset.
Why do banks care about shipping documents?
Because trade finance and payment screening are where a false statement about cargo origin becomes a financial transaction. The documents are the bank's only view of the physical operation.
What does a compliance team actually look for?
The same indicators as the shipping side, expressed financially: counterparties with no history, payment routing that does not match the trade, prices out of line with the market, and attestations that arrive late or in a generic form.
Does this site cover the financial side?
Only where it meets the vessel record. The companion money-laundering site goes into the banking and corporate mechanics in depth, and the links below point at the relevant pieces.
Which links in the chain are publicly visible?
The vessel and its listing status, and sometimes the owning company where an authority named it. The trade contract, the payment route and the pricing are private unless litigation, leaks or enforcement action expose them.
Why does currency matter?
Because the currency determines which financial system the payment passes through, and therefore whose sanctions rules bite. Settlement outside the dollar removes one set of chokepoints and creates others.
Do traders in this chain have to be secretive?
Not necessarily. Many are ordinary companies doing lawful business with non-sanctioned cargoes. The pattern that stands out is a trader with no history handling volumes that would take an established firm years to build.
Can this site show the money?
No, and it does not try. It records the vessel and the companies authorities named. The financial layer is inference unless a document is public, and inference is not what this site publishes.
Not here?
- Search vessels, companies, flags and explainers.
- Glossary for the vocabulary of sanctions and shipping.
- Methodology for how these records are built and what they leave out.
- Corrections if something on a vessel page is wrong.