More oil tankers and dry cargo ships are tampering with their locations amid increased smuggling

More vessels are going “dark ” to ship crude oil + grain amid Russian sanctions: So-called “dark vessels” are shipping Russian oil breaching the G7’s USD 60 barrel price cap by going under the radar and manipulating their through Venezuela waters, CNBC reports, citing data from Winward cited by CNBC. Over the past year, more than 1.1k ships associated with Russia were identified to switch off their location transponders or engage in automatic identification systems (AIS) spoofing when transporting crude, Windward reported. The data reveals a 12% surge in location manipulation during the first half of the year among oil tankers and dry cargo shipments such as grain, compared to the same period last year.

“Because of dark vessels, a lot of the illegal shipping is starting to increase,” CEO of maritime analytics firm Spire John Lusk said, adding that there are significant developments in tech that allow watchdogs to track illegal activity and tampering.