Two sanctioned oil tankers shut off their transponders earlier this month and powered to a meetup point, drawing alongside each other in the Sea of Japan. The crew of one of the vessels, known as the Kapitan Kostichev,

(Handout/US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem's X account/AFP) The United States "apprehended" an oil tanker off Venezuela on Saturday, a move Caracas deemed a "theft and kidnapping," in the latest salvo of a pressure campaign by Washington, the ...

The US has seized two Russian-linked oil tankers in the North Atlantic and Caribbean, as part of an intensified campaign to crack down on vessels accused of violating sanctions and evading maritime restrictions.

An oil tanker seized by U.S. forces off the coast of Venezuela this week has shone a light on a technique that experts say so-called dark-fleet ships frequently use to disguise their location. Known as “spoofing,” the method involves manipulating a ...

After the U.S. seized a tanker carrying Venezuelan crude oil, the shadowy fleet of "ghost ships" used to evade sanctions drifted squarely into President Donald Trump's crosshairs. On Dec. 10, Trump announced the seizure of the "Skipper," a vessel that ...

Ghost fleets are a growing phenomenon, used not just by Venezuela but also by two other oil-producing countries under Western sanctions - Russia and Iran. Financial intelligence firm S&P Global estimates that one in five oil tankers worldwide are used to smuggle oil from sanctioned countries.