U.S. Lets Investors Buy Sanctioned Tankers to Return Them to Legal Oil Trade, Wright Says
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says the Trump administration will allow sanctioned oil tankers to be sold so new investors can refurbish them and use them to carry non-sanctioned crude, aiming to pull ships out of the so‑called dark fleet.
The Trump administration is opening a path for sanctioned oil tankers to re-enter lawful trade, betting that refurbishing and repurposing blacklisted ships can chip away at the shadow fleet moving embargoed crude.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says Washington is authorizing sales of sanctioned tankers so investors can buy them, overhaul them and put them back into service carrying non-sanctioned oil. He estimates the global “dark fleet” at about 1,600 tankers.
Wright rejects the idea that this amounts to lifting sanctions on vessels that previously carried Russian or Iranian oil. He presents the approach as allowing ships themselves to be reused for legal cargoes under new ownership, rather than forgiving past violations.
The dark fleet label refers to tankers that operate with limited transparency and have been used to transport oil from countries under Western sanctions. By bringing some of these vessels into regulated trade, the U.S. hopes to reduce the pool of ships available for covert shipments while adding capacity for compliant exports.
How U.S. agencies implement this policy in practice—what conditions they place on sales, what vetting they require for new owners, and how they monitor future voyages—will determine whether it constrains sanctions evasion or simply encourages ship recycling with little change in behavior.
Shipping companies, insurers and major oil buyers will be watching early transactions closely for signs of how aggressively Washington intends to enforce the rules on rehabilitated vessels.
Sources
- OSINT