The Venezuelan shadow fleet is based on an informal maritime fleet of oil tankers and other vessels, used by the Venezuelan Government and related operators for selling oil and fuel while avoiding international sanctions and regulatory systems. The fleet that usually uses aversive methods such as turning off tracking systems, changing ship names or identities, transferring oil between ships at sea, and switching national flags. Actions that make it hard to see where the oil comes from, who owns it, and where it is going.
Shadow fleet, is a term used to generally describe ships secretly trading goods, especially oil and fuel, in order to avoid sanctions of other governments or international organizations. These fleets are developed as a response to tougher Western sanctions that try to limit oil exports from countries such as Venezuela,[1][2]Iran,[3][4] and Russia.[5][6] Venezuela's shadow fleet has played a significant role in maintaining crude oil exports despite US and allied sanctions targeting the Venezuelan oil sector, particularly since the late 2010s.[7] Venezuela that is obligated to Iran by the Axis of Unity, a strategic, political, economic and ideological alliance, was dependent on Iran for essential oil shipments and industrial equipment, that helped it through acute fuel shortages and US sanctions.[8][9]
Modus operandi
the vessels of the Venezuela's shadow fleet use a range of concealment strategies to evade detection and enforcement:
Digital and physical deception
Ships will often switch off their AIS transponders or broadcast false location data to disguise their movements.[10]
Flag and identity changes
Ships may sail under flags of convenience or repeatedly change names and registrations to obscure ownership and regulatory scrutiny.[10]
Ship-to-ship transfers
Tankers transfer oil to one another in international waters to conceal the origins of crude and complicate tracking of sanctioned cargoes.[10]
Shell companies and ownership obfuscation
Many tankers are owned by shell companies and registered in jurisdictions with minimal regulatory oversight, making enforcement difficult.[10]
Venezuela's role in oil exports
Oil export has been one of Venezuela's most important economical pillars, sustaining the country. Following the sanctions by Western countries, targeting the state oil company PDVSA and related companies, its legal ability to export was very limited, especially to the US. In order to continue its oil export, mainly to Asian markets, the Venezuelan authorities and their partners started using shadow fleet tankers, that can avoid sanctions enforcement.[11] Maritime analysts estimate that dozens of tankers, and sanctioned and non sanctioned ships with high risk operational indicators, have been involved in transporting Venezuelan crude, often destined for China.[12]
The continues operations of the Venezuelan shadow fleet, received growing attention from Western governments, who wanted to enforce sanctions in a more aggressive way, mainly the US. In late 2025 the Trump administration, seized several sanctioned oil tankers off Venezuela's coast, including the Skipper, which was implicated in sanctioned oil transport.[11] Other two notable cases were the capture of the Marinera off the coast of Iceland, and the capture of M Sophia in the international waters near the Caribbean.[13][14]
↑Suzuki, K. "Iran: The role and effectiveness of UN sanctions" in: Asada, M. (ed.) "Economic Sanctions in International Law and Practice". Routledge. pp.178–199.
↑Masoudi, H. (2023). "Iranian Discourses and Practices Regarding the US Sanctions", in: Kirkham, K.(ed.) "The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Sanctions" (1sted.). Routledge.
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