Russian Tankers Evade Sanctions with AIS Spoofing in Gulf of Oman

Summary:

On 5 September 2025, Russian shadow fleet tankers were found using AIS spoofing to conceal ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of sanctioned crude oil in the Gulf of Oman. Since February 2024, intelligence firms Vortexa and SynMax tracked cases such as Aframax Rozmarine and Suezmax Canara, which manipulated location data while transferring oil to non-sanctioned vessels Prisma and Vernal. These AIS spoofing tactics allowed sanctioned tankers to offload cargo for delivery to India and China while quickly returning to Russia for reloading.

Reference URL

https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1154719/Advanced-spoofing-hides-Russian-oil-transfers-in-Gulf-of-Oman