Some folks watch Netflix of their spare time. Remy Osman tracks rusty tankers transporting illicit oil via certainly one of the world’s busiest transport lanes.
From the roof of his Singapore residence constructing, the British expat, who works as a meals and beverage salesman, paperwork the passage of those shadow vessels, usually sanctioned by the US and different Western international locations, for his rising on-line viewers.
Shadow fleets, often known as ghost or darkish fleets, are ships that use murky techniques to move oil for pariah states like Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Oil revenues from these fleets, consisting of growing old tankers with opaque possession, have develop into essential sources of funding for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The US has cracked down on shadow fleets in latest months, seizing five sanctioned vessels as a part of President Donald Trump’s stress marketing campaign in opposition to Venezuela and its now-ousted chief Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by US forces earlier this month.
In the waters off Singapore, the underground business comes into public view.
The Singapore Strait is a vital maritime transport route connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Roughly 100,000 ships move via these waters annually, collectively carrying roughly one third of all items traded globally.
The strait’s strategic location additionally makes it a hub for shadow fleets transiting between Iran, Russia and Venezuela to China, certainly one of the world’s largest importers of sanctioned oil.
Osman has a front-row seat.
“Singapore is probably the best place on earth to see (shadow ships),” the 32-year-old stated.
While ships above a sure dimension are required below worldwide regulation to maintain their computerized identification system (AIS) trackers on, shadow vessels will generally go darkish to evade authorities. But as a result of the Singapore Strait is so slim, it’s virtually unattainable for a ship to transit safely with out switching on its location tracker.
The strait can also be so bodily near Singapore, a dense metropolis house to roughly six million folks, that Osman can see passing vessels and take pictures or movies of them with simply an iPhone.
Ship spotter screens sanctioned ships in Singapore
Shadow fleet balloons
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent Western sanctions on Russian oil, the world shadow fleet has ballooned. While the misleading techniques of the ships make them laborious to trace, data and analytics firm Kpler estimated the world shadow fleet comprised about 3,300 vessels in December 2025, representing about 6-7% of worldwide crude flows.
The fleet is sustained via techniques similar to fragmented possession, fast and repeated flag adjustments, manipulating location knowledge, and shifting cargo at sea throughout the evening or in areas with minimal oversight.
More than $100 billion value of crude oil was moved via shadow and sanctioned fleets in 2025, in response to Kpler.
Osman’s area of interest passion started throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was pressured to quarantine for 2 weeks after transferring to Singapore. He started recognizing ships from his lodge room’s balcony and documenting their passage on-line.
It wasn’t till a few yr in the past that Osman shifted his focus to shadow vessels, after he observed his viewers was inquisitive about the clandestine fleets. He says his web page has exploded in latest months as shadow fleets have captured the information cycle.
One of his Instagram movies from final August has greater than 2 million views.
There are a number of indicators {that a} ship may very well be transporting illicit oil, Osman stated.
He consults ship tracking apps and appears for older (20- to 25-year-old) ships which are working below flags belonging to nations with lax oversight, similar to Guinea, Comoros, the Gambia, and Mozambique. Sometimes a ship will outright fly the flag of Iran or Russia, making no effort to obscure itself, Osman stated.
Once a vessel has piqued his curiosity, Osman will search for its registration quantity and cross-reference it in opposition to lists of sanctioned ships.
Where the vessel is sitting in the water additionally provides clues about the place it may be headed, Osman stated. A ship that’s excessive in the water is probably going not carrying a lot oil, whereas a deeper ship is more likely to be carrying extra crude.
Last week the US seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Bella 1 in the North Atlantic following an 18-day pursuit which started when the tanker dodged the US Coast Guard whereas it was heading to Venezuela to choose up oil.
The Bella 1, which was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for transporting illicit Iranian oil, was initially working below a Guyanese flag however the crew rapidly painted a Russian flag on the tanker’s hull as soon as the US was on its tail.
The US has vowed to implement its embargo on shadow-fleet ships illegally transporting oil – together with by seizing ships which are evading sanctions.
Meanwhile, different international locations have gotten more and more involved about the security threats posed by massive vessels that disguise their presence in busy transport channels.
In 2024, the UK launched a “call to action” urging coastal, port and flag states to uphold maritime guidelines, gathering signatures from 50 international locations.
The nation’s Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper told the BBC this week that the UK is able to work with European companions to “tighten the chokehold” on the shadow fleet and undertake “a much more assertive and robust approach.”
That many of those ships are passing via the Singapore Strait is “purely a geography question,” stated Jennifer Parker, a former naval officer and non-resident fellow at Australia’s Lowy Institute. The waterway is the quickest route for ships crusing between East Asia and the Middle East.
The strait additionally serves as an excellent stopping level between sanctioned oil-producing international locations and China, Parker stated.
The waters off Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are a hotspot for ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of blacklisted oil, in response to analysts.
But as a result of the Singapore Strait is taken into account a global waterway, it’s not below Singaporean jurisdiction and authorities have restricted choices to intervene, Parker stated. It is mostly in opposition to worldwide regulation for a rustic apart from the flag state to board a ship, except they’ll show that the flag is fake, she added.
“If those vessels were to go into Singapore, then it could take action. But going through the international strait, there are limited things that Singapore can do,” Parker stated.
In an announcement to NCS, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore stated it “closely monitors vessel movements and ‘dark fleet’ associated behaviours in the areas in its purview” and reviews violations to the International Maritime Organization.
However, the MPA additionally acknowledged its restricted capability to behave below worldwide regulation.
“The Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS) are Straits Used for International Navigation, where vessels enjoy the right of transit passage under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” the MPA stated. The Malacca Strait, between Indonesia and Malaysia, connects to the Singapore Strait in the West.
“As these Straits form essential global shipping routes that must remain open to international navigation, this right of transit passage cannot be suspended under UNCLOS.”
On the day Osman spoke to NCS, he filmed a selfie video searching over Singapore’s towering residential buildings in the direction of the blurry strait far off in the distance.
“I’ve come to the rooftop to try to spot a sanctioned shadow fleet tanker,” Osman stated in the video. “The ship I’m trying to spot is called Sahara. It’s sailing under the flag of Guinea at the moment, and it’s a sanctioned vessel.”
In one other video filmed utilizing a digital camera with a zoom lens, Osman identified what he stated was the Sahara, peeking out from behind high-rise buildings.
Data from Marine Traffic confirmed the Sahara handed via the Strait Wednesday. Sahara is sanctioned by the US, the UK, Canada and Ukraine for its ties to Russia.
“It’s fascinating to connect what’s happening in global affairs to what I can see outside,” Osman stated.