The ‘Ghost Fleets’ Moving Oil Around the World

[music]. From the New York Times, I'm Rachel. Abrams. and this is the daily. [music]. President Trump says that the United. States has now seized an oil tanker off. the coast [music] of Venezuela. And so. this is. >> since December, the US has been stopping. and seizing oil tankers traveling in and. out of Venezuela. >> Largest one ever seized, actually. after. President Trump imposed a blockade on. ships carrying sanctioned Venezuelan.

oil. >> Showing US helicopters surrounding the. ship. You see that there? >> Ships that are part of what's known as a. ghost fleet. >> That's the US Coast Guard seizing. another ghost fleet tanker. >> This now as the US is pursuing a third. oil tanker near Venezuela. >> Oil tankers that try to secretly make. their way around the world. >> Four vessels are now in American. custody. Several more are being tracked. It marks the fifth tanker the US has. seized a sixth oil tanker. Now. >> a seventh sanctioned oil tanker. >> funding pro states like Venezuela, Iran,

and Russia. Today, my colleague Christian Tbert on. what these ghost fleets are exactly. [music] and how their days might be. numbered. It's Tuesday, January 27th. Christian, welcome to the Daily. >> Thank you. So Christian, the US has been. seizing and stopping oil tankers coming. in and out of Venezuela for weeks now. And at first this seemed like part of a. pressure campaign against President.

Nicholas Maduro, but then obviously the. US captured Maduro. And I think a lot of. people assumed that this effort, this. pressure on the ships would stop, but. instead it's actually not only. continued, but expanded. You are the. newsroom's resident expert on these oil. tankers. You've been tracking all of. this as part of our visual. investigations team. So let's start at. the very beginning. What is a ghost. fleet or shadow fleet? >> That's a very good question. Besides. shadow fleet and ghost fleet, there's a.

third term which is dark fleet. So. >> it's interesting because there's not a. well- definfined definition. It's. basically a term for oil tankers that. use deceptive practices to kind of hide. that they're transporting sanctioned. oil. Oil that's sanctioned by the United. States. And these ships want to hide. that they're picking up this oil and. delivering this oil. Why do I know a lot. about it? Is because that after the. full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. in February 2022, there was this same sudden surge in.

interest like ghost fleet, dark fleet, shadow fleet. And my manager asked me. like, Chris, can you find out what are. actually the ships of this fleet? So. that's how it started for me. But there. are hundreds of tankers, maybe even. thousands. We don't really know. And. basically these tankers are shipping. sanctioned Russian oil or sanctioned. Iranian oil and Venezuelan oil. They're. always shipping oil for either of these. three countries and sometimes for all. three. Most of the oil goes to China and. a significant portion goes to India as. well and these ships have decided to do.

that. There's a lot of money to make if. you're shipping sanctioned oil and. they're trying to hide that. >> Got it. Okay. So, do you have any sense. given the fact that this is literally. called a shadow fleet of how much of the. world's oil is transported this way? >> It's hard to say, right? Because they're. obviously trying to deceive everyone. that they're actually shipping this oil, but it's probably around like 10 to 20%. of oil tankers worldwide that have. engaged in this kind of activity, which. is quite a bit. But given that it's only. related to Russia, Iran, and Venezuela,

the share of the oil on the world market. is about 3 to 9% according to the data. that's available. >> So obviously sanctions are meant to hurt. countries economically, but what are the. goals in these specific cases? So the. point of these US sanctions is to. basically limit the revenue that's going. to the Kremlin to fund their war effort. in Ukraine to Iran, which the US says, you know, they're using the revenue from. oil to fund their activities with. Hezbollah and other other activities. that the US doesn't like. And the same.

with Venezuela. It's it's it's propping. up the Maduro government at the time. >> But what we have seen is that they're. successful in shipping this oil around. the world and still earning significant. amounts of money. >> on that oil. basically nobody's stopping. them even though technically there are. sanctions in place. >> Yes, that's exactly right. These ships. have been shipping that oil and there's. not really any kind of enforcement on. these ships. So the shipments of oil. just continue. But all of that changed. in December.

>> Okay. So let's talk about what happened. in December. What specifically did we. start seeing? In December, there's this very large. military pressure campaign on the Maduro. government in Venezuela by the US. >> There's a buildup of a huge military. force ahead of, of course, Maduro's. capture. But also, the Trump. administration said any oil tankers that. want to ship Venezuelan oil that is not. going to the United States, we're going.

to stop these vessels, port them, and. potentially even seize them. And that. was not just like an empty threat. it. actually started happening. >> We begin with the Trump administration's. dramatic escalation with Venezuela and. the Nicholas Maduro regime, seizing an. oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela. >> We saw one tanker being stopped, another. tanker being stopped. >> Commandos took over another tanker, fast. roping onto the deck and moving up to. the bridge to see. >> and another tanker being chased for. weeks. >> and this one tried to get away. It.

resulted in a sort of a slow motion uh. chase. Uh. >> so basically suddenly after years of not. enforcing these sanctions the US now. seems very serious about stopping these. ghost fleets. >> Absolutely. And it had a very. interesting effect on this very large. group of hundreds if not thousands of. tankers that are part of the shadow. fleet because we saw that other tankers. were already going to Venezuela that. kind of like turned around and were like. oh we don't want to get boarded by a US. Navy vessel. >> They were spooked. >> They were spooked. And at the same time,

the tankers that were already in. Venezuela were kind of like m we. probably should stay in Venezuela and. probably shouldn't leave. And then in. the beginning of January, >> the United States of America has. successfully carried out a large-scale. strike against Venezuela and its leader, President Nicholas Maduro, who has been. captured and flown out of the country. >> [music]. >> The United States enters Venezuela and. captures Maduro and it's chaos. And. [music] I got this call from Anatoli,

our colleague in Venezuela, and he's. like, "Hey, Chris, I [music] am being. told that four tankers have left port.". And I'm like, "Okay, let let me check.". And [music] indeed, on satellite. imagery, it was visible that these four. tankers had departed Venezuelan waters. and were sailing north. Mhm. >> But not only that, I also realized that. besides these four tinkers, there. [music] were 12 others that just. disappeared. >> What do you mean by disappeared? >> They disappeared on satellite imagery.

They were there the day before and the. next day they were gone. >> So it seemed all these tankers left in a. coordinated effort to defy the partial. blockade by the United States on on. Venezuelan oil experts. And one expert I. talked to said this is a zombie race. >> A zombie race, >> right? So when you leave altogether in a. group of 16, the odds that you're going. to get caught are way smaller than when. it's just one vessel leaving or two. vessels leaving cuz the United States.

has a huge military force buildup around. Venezuela. But we saw that, you know, over the holidays for three weeks they. chase one tanker. Mhm. >> Imagine having to chase 16 of them. So. the odds for these tankers leaving in a. coordinated effort. The odds of being. captured by the United States are way. smaller. >> Strengthen numbers. >> Strength in numbers indeed. Which is. very striking that you can imagine that. oh Maduro's being captured and all these. ships are basically deciding amongst.

themselves, are we going to go make a. run for it. >> or not? >> And it seemed a group of 16 indeed did. >> [music]. >> So me and my colleagues were thinking, what's going on? Where have these. tankers gone? And will they be able to. outrun the Americans, which would be. wild, right? Because this is arguably. the most powerful military in the world. And are they continuing to evade these. sanctions on them or will they. eventually get caught? >> So we set out and tried to find out.

We'll be right back. Christian, before the break, you. described this kind of cat-and- mouse. game that the US has been playing with. these ships and this question of whether. the US will ultimately be successful in. enforcing its sanctions, specifically. with these 16 oil tankers, which as you. described seem to have just sort of. disappeared from Venezuelan waters. You. had mentioned that you and our. colleagues wanted to set out to find out. where they'd gone. Tell us how you. started doing that. Yeah. So, these ships engage in a lot of.

deceptive practices and because they use. these deceptive techniques, it's pretty. hard. But if you know where to look, you. can get some pretty good clues. >> Well, how do you even know where to. look? >> So, for example, every oil tanker needs. to send out a location signal, which is. for safety. They're very big, and you. know, if they don't send out a location. signal and another ship doesn't see them. in low visibility, for instance, it's. going to be a disaster. So, there's an. agreement. all the bit large ships. should send out this transponder signal. But the transponder signal also allows.

anyone on the planet to kind of see. where these ships are. Um website called. Marine Traffic and you know you can see. thousands of vessels that you can just. track in real time. But from all those. 16 ships that disappeared from. Venezuelan waters, we couldn't track any. of them. Why? because they either. switched off their transponder signal, which means going dark, or they faked. their location signal to pretend they're. actually of the coast of West Africa or.

Asia. A method that's known as spoofing. They're spoofing their location signal. >> Okay. So, I understand all of that. I. think it sounds like it's VPN, but for. ships, right? >> Right. >> But then how do you actually go about. figuring out where the ships are? >> So, we basically just look at satellite. imagery. It shows the coast. It shows. the water. And it shows ships in the. sea. And I can see there is a tanker. with a red deck. There is a larger. tanker with a green deck. And we're. trying to identify which tankers they.

are. >> Do you have picture satellite images on. your computer to show me that we can. kind of describe a little bit? Let me. I'm going to move my seat over. >> Okay. So now what we're looking at is a. tab on this marine traffic website that. looks like a map of Venezuela with. thousands of arrows that are red or. purple or green. Tell us what these. different color codings mean and what is. an individual arrow. >> So every arrow is a ship that's sending. out a location signal. Green means it's. carrying cargo. Purple means it's like a.

pleasure craft. So like a yacht or a. cruise ship. And red are tankers. And. that's what we're interested in. >> Okay. >> And what you can see here is three. vessels, right? >> I see three red arrows. Yep. Okay. >> But if we look at the satellite image, we can see that there are way more ships. there. >> There are way more than three oil. tankers on the satellite image. And yet. when we look at the marine website, you're saying there are only three ships. that are sending out transponder. signals. >> Exactly. So all these ships that send. out a legitimate signal, they're usually.

okay because they have nothing to hide, right? They're showing that they're in. Venezuela and they're saying like that's. for anyone to see on the world. Anyone. with internet connection can see, hey, they're sending out this signal from. Venezuela. But I'm very interested in. the ships that appear in the satellite. image, but that are not sending out a. signal. So they're not visible on that. website. So then I can try to identify. these ships by zooming in on the. satellite image, seeing what color the. deck is, how long it is, how wide it is, and then I can check that information. against a database of tankers that I've.

built up over the past few years. together with my colleagues that list. tankers that are in the shadow fleet by. name. But it's very tricky because they. change their names not only in online. registries or shipping registries, but. also when you would see the ship in. person. There's a group called tanker. trackers.com company that is specialized. in this and they have a photographer on. shore in Venezuela that kind of like. secretly takes photos of these tankers. These photos are usually not published, but we have access to them and we can.

get an insight on how how do these ships. actually look like from the ground, right? Sometimes we try to find out. which tankers they are by trying to see. if there's any sailors on board, any. crew members that are maybe posting a. Tik Tok video or Instagram videos. >> What are they posting about exactly? Is. it like, "Hi, I'm on a ship. >> about their lives." And they're like. excited. Maybe it's the first time in. their lives they're in Venezuela. They're like, "Hey, look where I am. This is so pretty." And they're showing. their family members. They're showing. their fellow merchant navy crew members. like where they are. And it's a whole. community online. [snorts] And you know,

it's interesting like the oil is. sanctioned and they're engaged in what. the US sees as illegal activity. But of. course, like if this oil is being picked. up in Venezuela, then brought to China. and [clears throat] your crew member on. board of the ship, why would you really. care about US sanctions? >> It feels like if you're going to go. through all this effort to obscure your. name and location, you would tell the. people that work on your ship, please. don't post to Tik Tok. [snorts]. >> You would think so, but it seems uh we. as human beings just love to share. things on social media. >> I guess so. What can you learn from. these photos and videos? Then.

>> what [clears throat] is very fascinating. is that we have seen ships that are. obscuring their own name. Mhm. >> In in very like kind of like rudimentary. ways like we've seen bed sheets being. hung over the hole to obscure the name. and in many instances actually we have. seen them just like completely painting. over their actual name and just putting. on the name not of a fake ship but of a. real ship that is kind of like the same. in its appearance but a ship that.

actually when you go to databases you. realize that's a ship that has been sent. to the scrapyard doesn't exist anymore. So, it's a lot of ways of obscuring. their real identities, but that makes it. also kind of fascinating and and fun to. find out, can I find out which tanker it. is? >> Okay, so they're hiding where they are. They're hiding their real names. What. else are they doing in order to operate. in secret? >> So, they also change their flag. So, all. these large vessels need to be. registered in a country and then they're. flying the flag of that country. So they.

can for instance say like oh we're. flying the flag of Cameroon or the. Marshall Islands or Panama or Ghana. Um. but actually when you go to the shipping. registries of these countries it turns. out that they're at times not even. registered there. So they're flying a. fake flag. And what we've seen recently. a lot is ships changing their flags to. Russia. >> And why Russia? >> Because they think it will protect them. against US. Like boarding a vessel like. US is boarding vessels and saying, "Hey, you're not flying a real flag." But. boarding a ship that actually flies an.

official Russian flag is a whole another. thing. It could cause a major diplomatic. crisis between these two superpowers. And that's interesting because if that's. what they're trying to do, claim Russian. protection, it hasn't worked because the. United States has already boarded two. vessels that were flying an official. Russian flag. >> But just to go back to the 16 tankers. that left Venezuela right after Maduro. was captured, what were you able to find. out about those tankers and where they. went? So, of these 16 vessel that. disappeared, we found a couple that were. sailing in the Caribbean Sea, but also a.

couple that were already far out in the. Atlantic Ocean. >> So, we contacted the United States and. said like, "Are you are you aware of. these ships? Are you like are they going. to be stopped? Like, what what's going. on?". >> You contacted the military. >> We contacted the military, my colleagues. did, and they said, "Yeah, we're. tracking them and we're trying to seize. some of them." And that actually. happened. At least three of the vessels. that we reported on that had disappeared. were indeed stopped and boarded by the. United States. But what's also very. interesting to me is that some of these. vessels actually seem to have made it.

through. There is a group that's still. sailing out there and is by now probably. close to Africa. >> The zombie race worked out for them. And. there is another group of tankers that. turned around and went back to Venezuela. and seems to be obeying US orders right. now. >> And what does that mean? It's hard to. know exactly what's happening, but after. Madura was captured, the US basically. started directing where Venezuela's oil. is allowed to go and where these tinkers.

can ship it. And they are shipping. Venezuelan oil now to storage sites in. the Caribbean, hoping to sell that. Venezuelan oil on the global world. market, but under the US directive. M. >> so what you kind of see is that some of. these shadow fleet vessels are now. working for what the US wants. >> I'm still kind of struck by the fact. that these ships are going through all. of this effort to evade the authorities. which seems to have worked except here.

you are Christian you have been able to. track so many of them. So I sort of. wonder if you've been able to track so. many of them through Tik Tok or other. means, satellite images. Why has this. been able to go on for so long? >> So these sanctions come from the US. Treasury Department, but they're not. usually the enforcer of these sanctions, right? We see that now. Like these ships. are not being stopped by a ship from US. Treasury Department. They're being. stopped by the US Navy or, you know, the. US Coast Guard. And a lot of it relied.

on kind of like self-regulation, meaning. like you're let's say an oil trader or a. shipper or whatever, you probably don't. want to touch that Iranian oil because. if you do, you may get in trouble with. the US authorities and that means like. the next time you get a job in like. picking up oil in the US and bringing it. somewhere, you're probably not going to. get that job because you touched Iranian. oil in the past. But there's also. something else that's been going on and. has been allowed to go on and that's to. do with insurance. >> Insurance. >> Insurance. Absolutely. Because you can.

imagine if this if if an accident. happens with one of these big ships. laden with oil and it hits something in. a port and there's a huge oil spill, that's going to cost billions and. billions of dollars. So all these ships. need to have insurance. And many ports. in the world, doesn't matter whether. it's Houston or whether it's a port in. Iran or a port in China, >> these ports will say like, "Hey, do you. have legitimate insurance?" Because, you. know, if something happens, we want to. make sure that someone pays for the. cleanup. >> So, okay, I understand why you might.

want an insurance company to ensure your. boat full of oil. But if you are in a. legally operating boat full of oil, how. do you get insurance? >> I mean, there are not that many insurers. in the world that can take this on. And. most of these insurance companies are. based in western countries. So what has. been happening is that many of these. shadow fleet oil tankers are lying to. these insurers when they ask for.

insurance. But what has happened. recently uh maybe partly because of the. reporting we did on that um and also. just in general an increased scrutiny on. these ships. These American and Western. insurance companies are yanking. insurance away from these ships. So now. these ships are getting insurance from. less reputable companies or sometimes. even companies that may not really exist. that are often linked to Russia, which. is also pretty scary, right? Because. let's say something happens with one of. these shadow fleet tankers. Who the hell. is going to pay for it? >> Do you have any sense, Christian, as to. how this pressure campaign on the shadow.

fleet might end? So one striking thing. that has happened after Trump met with. European leaders at Davos is that Macron. tweeted and said, "Hey, we as France. also stopped and boarded a tanker that. was carrying Russian sanctioned oil." So. that's a striking spillover effect of. Trump's gumpo diplomacy where at least a. one-time ally, France, is now doing the. same thing as the US is doing, which is. stopping and boarding these shadow fleet.

tankers. But also what I'm looking at. right now is at a completely different. side of the world, but very much linked, and that's Iran. >> [music]. >> President Donald Trump is ramping up. pressure on Iran. >> Yeah. He says big force is heading to. the region as the country continues to. kill protesters in the streets. >> On Thursday night, Trump said that he's. moving an armada of military vessels.

towards the region. And the next day on. Friday, >> the Trump administration is issuing new. sanctions on Iran's shadow fleet of oil. vessels as the president sends Iran a. stern warning. >> The US Treasury [music] Department. announced a new set of sanctions. specifically targeting oil tankers. because the US wants to put more. pressure on Iran given [music] their. crackdown on the anti-government. protests. So what I find very. interesting is that when we remember how.

this started in Venezuela. where you had the US military building. up its forces around Venezuela and the. US threatening and then stopping and. boarding tankers [music] linked to. Venezuela's oil trade. We see something. similar happening with Iran right now. The US is moving its military vessels. there. We see that actually happening on. satellite imagery. And the question is. now are we going to see something.

similar happening regarding Iran as what. we saw happening in Venezuela. Hm. If this effort to stop ghost fleets does. in fact expand, I wonder how much that. threatens not just ghost fleets, but. threatens a disruption of the global oil. market generally. I mean, you could. imagine maybe that's one of the reasons. why sanctions have not been super well.

enforced before. >> Totally. You know, Iran and Russia are. reliant on their income that they have. from exporting their oil and there may. be less shippers willing to transport. their oil and that means that it will be. harder for them for Iran and for Russia. to get their oil out and it will get. more expensive to get that oil and as I. said before like China and also India. are the biggest buyers of this Iranian. Russian oil in most instances and will. be more expensive for China to buy this.

oil. >> But just to focus on the US for a. second, do we have any sense of how any. of that could affect oil prices here. domestically? Like what would change in. the United States? >> The global oil market doesn't like when. there's uncertainty. So each time a ship. is getting seized, there's a small. uptick in the price of oil, but that. kind of like washes out over time. And. what we hear Trump saying is that, you. know, this is the reason why the United.

States is doing what it's doing in. Venezuela. A major reason is the oil, if. not the primary reason, right? So the. idea behind that from a Trump. administration seems to be we want to. get oil prices down uh for the United. States. But the question is whether that. will indeed happen. >> Okay. And beyond the impact that this. all might have on the global oil market, what about the broader geopolitical. impacts of enforcing these sanctions, seizing these oil tankers, like could. the countries that the US is targeting. retaliate in some meaningful way?

>> Well, I'm very curious what is the. reaction going to be of Iran and Russia? Because so far they haven't done much. except sending out written statements. It's not that they send their own navy. to retaliate by seizing uh uh oil. tankers of the west, but as pressure. increases on them and if their cash flow. even is more reduced because of these. actions by the United States and now. also by France, are they feeling they. have to take action to kind of get their. oil moving around the world?

Like how are they going to generate. income because they will need that money. [music] to continue to be in power? And. if the US and now also allies of the US. [music] are stopping these vessels, what's going to happen? So the question. of how these governments are going to. survive [music] is the main question on. my mind moving forward. [music]. [music].

>> Christian, thank you so much. >> Thank you so much for having me. [music]. We'll be right back. [music]. Here's what else you need to know today. Greg Bavino, the Border Patrol official. in charge of President Trump's [music]. immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, is expected to leave the city, according. to two [music] US officials. The.

decision to move him out came days after. he made the unsubstantiated claim. [music] that Alex Prey, the man who was. shot and killed by federal agents, was. planning to quote massacre law. enforcement officers. [music]. Bobino's departure comes as President. Trump moves to tamp down anger over the. second fatal shooting in the city. Trump's borders [music] are Tom Hman. will now direct ICE operations in the. state. and [music] Israel has said that it's.

recovered the remains of its last. hostage from Gaza on Monday. [music]. It paves the way for the next phase of. President Trump's peace plan for the. strip [music] which calls for Israel to. reopen the Rafa border crossing between. Gaza and Egypt. That would allow. Palestinians who fled [music] during the. war to return home for the first time. Israel had refused to reopen the border. until the remains of the last captive. were returned. [music]. Today's episode was produced by Shannon.

Lynn, Diana Wyn, OliviaNat, Claire. Tennis, [music] and Michael Simon. Johnson. It was edited by Maria Burn, Patricia Willins, and Paige [music]. Cowat. contains music by Marian Lozano, Diane Wong, and Dan Powell, and was. engineered by Chris Wood. [music].

That's it for the Daily. I'm Rachel. Abrams. See you tomorrow.