The Dark Fleet’s Growing Use of False Flags

The new data from S&P Global has revealed that the dark fleet - vessels that operate outside normal, regulated, and transparent shipping practices - continues to grow in its use of false flags. 

At the time of writing, more than 370 vessels have been noted as flying false or fraudulent flags (of which, 85% are tankers). This represents a significant growth from the 223 vessels identified as flying false flags at the beginning of 2025. 

Despite widespread awareness of this issue, it appears that regulators are struggling to tackle the issue. Indeed, in many cases, false flagged vessels are operating in plain sight. Vessels have recently been spotted flying the flag of Timor-Leste: a country that doesn’t have a ship registry. The Government of Timor-Leste alerted the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) about this illegal operation earlier this year. 

Data from Windward - an Israeli maritime analytics platform - has identified around 1,900 ships as part of the dark fleet. Further, around 40% of Iran-trading tankers, and 30% of Russia-trading tankers in the dark fleet are making use of fraudulent registries. 

Fraudulent registries linked to the dark fleet that have been identified by the IMO include: 

• Aruba.
• Benin.
• Curaçao. 
• Guinea. 
• Guyana. 
• Eswatini. 
• Malawi. 
• Timor-Leste. 
• St Maarten.

A related issue involves vessels signalling that they are flagged with legitimate registries - when in fact they are not. 

A recent report from Windward stated that: 

“The unprecedented scale and prevalence of falsely flagged ships - numbers have doubled in less than 12 months - is now a significant threat to the regulatory integrity of global seaborne trade and undermines the foundations of the world’s maritime economic system”.

That regulators are struggling to deal with falsely flagged vessels is no surprise when one considers the extraordinary lengths sanctioned nations are going to, to maintain trades of oil and other energy products.

Research from S&P Global has revealed that Russia, Iran, and Venezuela are sharing the same pool of vessels to maintain their overseas oil sales - aided by an emerging class of shipping companies controlled by shadowy businessmen. 

Approximately 96% of these pooled vessels are operated by new, little-known companies registered in China, Hong Kong, the Seychelles, and the UAE. 

That these vessels are able to offload their cargoes to willing buyers appears due to a combination of sanctioned countries disguising cargo origins combined with a lack of curiosity and checks from buyers. 

As Benjamin Hilgenstock, Head of Macroeconomic Research at the Kyiv-based academic institution - the KSE Institute - characterised the situation: 

“Many buyers, in practice, pay little attention to the origin as long as they receive the required volume and quality of oil. In some cases, buyers ‘turn a blind eye’ to the origin, especially if it allows them to obtain cheaper oil”.

Regulators and researchers alike will now be closely watching the dark fleet to see if the volume of false flags continues to climb.

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