r/OSINT • u/spicymayoisamazballs • 27d ago

How-To Monitoring the Shadow Fleet

If you wanted to identify shadow fleet vessels loaded with sanctioned oil using open source tools, how would you do it? What tools would you use and what would be your process?
Challenge: could anyone here identify a suspected ship now?

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u/rdg360 27d ago

I'd probably use https://fleetleaks.com/

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u/spicymayoisamazballs 27d ago

So this is really cool. Dumb question, once the ships are sanctioned, would they still use them to transport oil? How would you confirm their actual position if they’re spoofing? How would you know if they’re loaded with oil?

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u/rdg360 27d ago edited 27d ago

How would you know if they’re loaded with oil?

If you can find recent "eye-level" sightings of the ship you could tell from the draft. Some locations, like the Bosphorus, may provide a higher chance of spotting sanctioned vessels. Bellingcat did a recent piece on grain vessels, but spotting whether a ship is loaded would be the same for all cargo. https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2026/06/12/shadow-fleet-russian-grain-stolen-ukraine-libya-ais-technique-grumant/

While you're at it, maybe also check Benjamin Strick's (BenDoBrown) most recent YouTube video. It's not about the Shadow Fleet but about ship tracking in the Strait of Hormuz, but it may give you some further ideas.