’Dark' Ships Deceive Locations to Move Billions in Oil Globally
🛢 ’Dark' Ships Deceive Locations to Move Billions in Oil Globally.
A growing number of ships are manipulating their reported locations for illicit activities, potentially involving goods worth billions of dollars. These "dark vessels" engage in actions such as shipping Russian oil to evade the G7's $60 per barrel price cap, hiding tankers in Venezuelan waters, and smuggling grain from Ukraine. Satellite technology capable of detecting false location reports is revealing this deceptive behavior. Data from maritime tech firm Windward indicates a 12% rise in location manipulation among oil tankers and cargo ships in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period last year, with an 82% increase from the first half of 2021. As technology advances, it becomes easier to detect such tampering, and efforts to make ship locations public are shedding light on these activities. The European Union's recent sanctions now bar vessels that have turned off or spoofed their automatic identification systems (AIS) from entering ports.
Oil prices fluctuated within a tight range on Friday, as investors weighed mixed signals from the world's top oil consumers, China and the U.S. Brent crude slipped 13 cents to $83.75 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell 4 cents to $79.22.