Once upon a time (like, 2 weeks ago), Dark Fleet tankers navigated in a fairly straight line between two ports in Venezuela. Now however, they are hugging the coastline out of fear. That in itself is risky business because these vessels might accidentally ram into something.

CENTURIES (9206310), laden with circa 1.8 million barrels of Merey-16 crude oil from Venezuela, has re-appeared today on AIS south of Puerto Rico. She is now south of the Dominican Republic. She should reach the GOLA, USA in about six days time. #OOTT #Tankers #Venezuela

1/3 Although (to our best knowledge) BELLA 1 (9230880) still hasn't been seized, she faces another challenge.

UPDATE: The VLCC has now made a u-turn.

These tankers are all still physically in Venezuela but due to AIS spoofing, they're able to misrepresent their locations in order to show that they are scattered worldwide. #OOTT #Tankers #Venezuela

Collectively, SKIPPER (9304667), CENTURIES (9206310) and BELLA 1 (9230880) have directly exported a combined total of 41 million barrels of crude oil and fuel oil out of #Iran and #Venezuela. That's at least $2 billion. Two birds, one stone. #OOTT #Tankers

1/2) Thirty-eight hours ago, we notified clients of an empty VLCC supertanker approaching Venezuela. We we able to visually identify her while in transit. She is under US OFAC sanctions due to her transfers of Iranian oil. The vessel crossed

May there be a higher character count on this platform next year!

1/3) Between October 2021 and September 2025, the US OFAC-sanctioned BELLA 1 (9230880) had directly exported 7.3 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, as well as 3.7 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil; both to China.

UPDATE: SKIPPER (9304667) has now reached the general GOLA (Galveston Offshore Lightering Area) in order to transfer her 1.85 million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil to smaller tankers that can then bring the oil into various refinery terminals within Houston, for instance. #OOTT

Our latest on the CENTURIES (9206310), Panama-flagged and Chinese-owned supertanker boarded by the U.S. Coast Guard. With insights from @tankertrackers.com and Kpler on the vessel's history of faking locations and names. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/u...

SKIPPER (9304667): We are tracking her by satellite imagery (just to confirm the AIS data) and can see that she is about a day away from reaching GOLA where she will have to transfer her 1.85 million barrels cargo onto three smaller tankers in order to feed oil refineries in ports such as Houston.

CENTURIES (9206310)

Taken Vessels This is a publicly-accessible page showing the latest whereabouts of vessels that are being held by the Iranians and the Houthis. We are doing this for the benefit of the crews' families as well as stakeholders. tankertrackers.com/report/taken

1/2) In light of the media attention on the matter, we have now opened up our Dark Fleet Stats to the public. It currently shows 1480 active tankers worldwide. tankertrackers.com/report/darkf...

UPDATE: #Venezuela’s crude oil exports remain fairly unchanged following US asset seizure of VLCC supertanker SKIPPER (9304667) due to plentiful availability of non-sanctioned Dark Fleet #tankers. #OOTT

BREAKING: We have now visually confirmed the arrival of Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba. The oil tanker received an estimated 50,000 barrels of her 600,000 barrel cargo via a Ship-to-Ship transfer from SKIPPER (9304667) just days ahead of SKIPPER's arrest by the US Coast Guard.

BREAKING: We have visual confirmation of a VLCC supertanker laden with at least 1.8 million barrels of crude oil departing #Venezuela today. Accompanied by possible VE Navy escort. The VLCC is not blacklisted by US OFAC even though she has violated VE sanctions since 2020. #OOTT

Let's see how December ends. #Venezuela #OOTT

1/4) Here are some Venezuela tanker stats we can share: There are 75 proven (by us) sanctions violators currently in Venezuela. Of that 75, only 38 are under US sanctions.

A Panama-flagged, US-blacklisted VLCC supertanker which tends to use the name of a dead tanker, snuck her way into Venezuela yesterday while spoofing on AIS to show that she is in a completely different part of the world. Standard operating procedure. Details are with clients.

We're now going to stop answering press emails because there's like six journalists from each news org asking us the same set of questions. Y'all don't communicate internally. Await our updates here and elsewhere instead. Thanks, TT

Dear members of the press, We'll try to be generous with our data regarding Venezuela but please understand that we have clients to prioritize. Had it not been for them, we wouldn't have this data to begin with. We owe them a huge thanks for supporting our efforts. Thanks, TT

By our count, only 40% of the active Dark Fleet which serves Venezuela, is under US sanctions. #OOTT #Tankers

CONFIRMED: Several sanctions-violating VLCC supertankers that aren't on any official sanctions lists are making u-turns in the Indian and Atlantic oceans instead of proceeding to #Venezuela. #OOTT #Tankers

A UK-insured VLCC supertanker known for violating sanctions is currently loading 1.8 million barrels of crude oil in Venezuela. The vessel is still not on any blacklists but has been conducting business there for over three years now. This is a potential plan B for Venezuela.

Iran Dark Fleet Stats: A total of 608 active tankers. Size class breakdown: - VLCC/ULCC: 181 (and one died the other day in India) - Suezmax: 58 - Aframax: 107 - Panamax: 33 - Handies: 229 #OOTT #Tankers #IranSanctions

Great use of our data and visual evidence in this Reuters article. #OOTT #Tankers #Venezuela #SKIPPER www.reuters.com/graphics/USA...

After reading a number of articles covering SKIPPER; as well as for future reference, we urge journalists to include the IMO number of the vessel and to apply that as general practice. Vessels change names all the time, but the IMO is constant. Hers is 9304667 Thanks, /TT

We're also on Telegram t.me/TankerTrackers

Just a reminder that we host the Officially Blacklisted Tankers list on our website: tankertrackers.com/report/sanct... It is automagically updated throughout the day and you can even freely access it via API if that rocks your boat. #Tankers #OOTT

Some Dark Fleet stats regarding the Venezuelan oil trade which we'll summarize here for the press as our mailbox resembles a trainwreck right now: Total: 397 active tankers Size class breakdown: - VLCC/ULCC: 143 - Suezmax: 73 - Aframax: 111 - Panamax: 23 - Handies: 47 #Tankers #OOTT #Venezuela

Based on yesterday's USG rap music video, we can see that SKIPPER (9304667) was very laden with Venezuelan crude oil. Now that AIS data has come through with a draft depth update, our estimate is 1.85 million barrels of Merey-16 crude oil onboard. #OOTT #Tankers

SKIPPER (9304667), presented on Google Earth Pro with help of our KML files. We have thousands of tankers documented this way in order to allow clients to quickly click around and zoom in on locations. Hi-res environments adds valuable context to what they are looking at.

SKIPPER (9304667) in hi-res. Nothing escapes Planet Labs.

A LOT of law firms get in touch requesting visual evidence of sanctions violations but normally wouldn't subscribe to a plan. As of today, it is possible to purchase standalone KML files which include our satellite imagery sightings. Details: tankertrackers.com/faq/entry/is...

Dumbest spoof ever. This tanker is actually in Iran right now.

Saudi Arabia has shipped 1.68M barrels of crude oil to Syria, with RELIABLE WARRIOR (9753557) delivering the final million tonight. This number is dwarfed by ~19MB which Russia sent in order to keep their military bases in Syria; denying Kremlin $1.2B in oil revenue.

Although Iran has released Panamax tanker TALARA (9569994) without her gasoil cargo, Iran is still holding the following. -ARIANA (9500132) at 27.08308, 56.22919 -MSC ARIES (9857169) at 27.0446, 56.14443 -ST NIKOLAS (9524475) at 27.07527, 56.23499 -NIOVI (9292498) is also held but being put to use.

Mystery concerning #Tanker #Talara seized by #Iran #MaritimeExecutive Kudos @tankertrackers.com maritime-executive.com/article/myst...

TALARA (9569994) will most likely appear in this red area on tomorrow’s satellite imagery. It is known as the Khuran (or Clarence) Strait, located north of Qeshm Island, Iran. This is where the terrorist-designated IRGC anchors vessels they have hijacked in international waters.

BREAKING: Over the past 4 weeks, Iran has exported nearly 2.3 million barrels of crude oil per day. These are numbers we haven't seen since the early half of 2018. #OOTT

Preliminary October 2025 Crude Oil Exports Summary #OOTT - Guyana unlocked a new level at 900Kbpd. - Iran was very tall for a second month in a row. Any higher will negate sanctions. - Ukraine's "drone sanctions" against Russia's refineries boosted exports of unprocessed oil.

This morning's (2025-11-03) hi-res images show that the oil terminal at Tuapse, Russia is working on containing the oil spill caused by yesterday's "drone sanctions" by Ukraine. One of these three tankers is a known naughty but not on any G7 government blacklists. Only on ours.

Bluesky really needs to raise its character limit, y'all.

HatTip to @tankertrackers.com #TankerTrackers #MaritimeExecutive #FT #FinancialTimes maritime-executive.com/article/indi...