What is vessel sanctions screening?

Vessel sanctions screening checks a ship, its owners and counterparties against OFAC, EU, UK, UN and 20+ further sanctions lists, then layers in behavioural risk — ownership changes, AIS gaps, ship-to-ship transfers — to produce a defensible go/no-go decision before you finance, insure or charter the vessel.

Is Darkwater live today?

Yes. The platform is live in production with real sanctions data (20+ source lists with live-dated matches), live AIS feeds and real dark-fleet cases. Founding desks get a demo account — capped reports, an uncapped AI agent — before converting to paid founding access.

What is the Ask Agent copilot?

Ask Agent is an embedded AI copilot that reads the full vessel or counterparty dossier and answers analyst questions in place, with structured, sourced output — drivers, tables and citations. It is human-in-the-loop by design: it accelerates the analyst and documents the reasoning, it does not replace them.

What is the dark fleet (shadow fleet)?

The dark fleet — also called the shadow fleet — is the group of tankers and cargo vessels that evade sanctions through tactics like AIS spoofing, frequent identity changes and ship-to-ship transfers. Darkwater surfaces these behaviours as ranked, plain-English alerts.

Who is Darkwater for?

Darkwater is built for the desks that carry maritime risk: banks and trade finance, P&I and hull insurers, commodity traders, shipbrokers, charter desks, and sanctions and compliance teams.

How is Darkwater different from AIS vessel-tracking tools?

AIS trackers tell you where a ship is. Darkwater tells you whether to do business with it — turning ownership, behaviour, sanctions exposure and port history into one clear, auditable verdict per vessel.

Does Darkwater replace my compliance team?

No. Darkwater is decision-support intelligence that accelerates analysts and documents the reasoning. High-stakes calls still reach a person, and final compliance decisions remain with the regulated entity.

Shadow-fleet designations keep expanding across OFAC, EU & UKSee a real screening

Know the vessel
before the money moves

Maritime risk intelligence for the desks that carry the risk — turning ownership, behaviour, sanctions exposure and dark-fleet signals into a clear, defensible vessel screening decision. The platform is live — founding access is open.

Request a demo Explore

Designed for desks in

Trade finance
Screen vessels, owners and counterparties before issuing an LC or releasing payment.
Marine insurance
Vessel-level risk at quote and renewal, with behavioural change flagged across the book.
Commodity trading
Pre-fixture screening and a counterparty brief before the cargo moves.
Shipbroking
Counterparty briefs and a weekly market read you can share with clients.
Charter desks
See who's really on the other side of the fixture before you sign.
Compliance & sanctions
Auditable screening across OFAC, EU, UK, UN and 20+ lists with reasoning your auditor can read.

The risk has moved.
Your tooling hasn't.

Sanctions exposure, shadow fleets and opaque ownership now sit inside everyday trade finance, charter and insurance decisions. A "clean" counterparty can pass a name screen while its only asset is a directly sanctioned tanker. The cost of being wrong is no longer a slow audit finding — it is a fine, a frozen account, a torched relationship.

Data vendors show you risks. Darkwater delivers the decision — one clear, defensible answer per vessel, fast enough to use before the deal closes, structured enough to hand to your auditor.

Five answers,
one platform.

Flagship

Vessel Risk Screening

Search any vessel by name or IMO — scored, defensible go / no-go in minutes.

Screening verdictIMO 1110084

URSUS

Malta flag · crude oil tanker

Real screening · production platform · run 11 Jul 2026

Block

Risk score100 / 100

Screened against · OFAC · EU · UK · UN · +20 lists

F01Entity of interest — exporting Russian crude via dark activity and STS transfers
F0215 sanctioned sister vessels across the linked fleet of 193 screened
F03Registered ownership fully undisclosed — flagged as a risk signal in its own right
F04STS transfers in high-risk areas near Black Sea export ports
F05AIS dark activity consistent with price-cap evasion since March 2023

From the report

“Entity of interest under the G7 / EU price-cap regime: since March 2023 the tanker has exported Russian crude using deceptive, high-risk practices — dark activity and STS transfers near Black Sea ports. Ownership is fully undisclosed and 15 sister vessels are tied to sanctions. Recommendation: block.”

Counterparty

Counterparty & Charter Due Diligence

We screen the network, not just the name — know who's really on the other side before you sign.

Counterparty briefIMO 6413394

United Fuel Trading UFT Pte

RejectRisk score 70 / 100

Sole-vessel owner · shell pattern

Corporate network

Beneficial owner· unresolved

└ United Fuel Trading UFT Pte · sanction-linked

├ Sole vessel — AURA MARIS · designated on 5+ lists

└ ISM manager — Astute Maritime · person of interest

!Sole vessel AURA MARIS directly designated on 5+ sanctions lists
!Company classified sanction-linked through its vessel designation
!ISM manager flagged as a person of interest · same-address pattern
!Beneficial ownership unresolved — declared as a risk driver in its own right

Operations

Port Call & Congestion Intelligence

A daily read on where the cargo really is, and what that means for your voyage.

Port briefingFujairah · 28 Jun 2026

Fujairah Anchorage

Daily brief · crude + products

Vessels waiting

47+9 d/d

Median wait

3.2 days

Median wait · 14 daysCongestion: elevated

STS cluster forming — 6 tankers, 12nm offshore
Wait time +38% vs 30-day trend
Berth productivity within normal range

Market

Fixture & Market Intelligence

A weekly read of who is moving what, where — and where demand is shifting.

Market briefWeek 26 · 2026

Tanker segment

Weekly read · dirty + clean

TD3C · 10 weeksVLCC rates firming

TD3C

WS 58 · +6

Tonnage

Tightening

MEG→East demand up week-on-week
Suez disruption reshaping clean flows
Aframax Atlantic firm on tight lists

Platform · Ask Agent

The analyst's copilot, embedded in every dossier.

Works on the live dossier — “Summarise the risk verdict.” “Walk me through the corporate network.” Answered in place.
Structured, sourced output: drivers, tables and citations — not a chat toy.
Accelerates, never replaces: high-stakes calls always reach a person; the agent documents the reasoning.

Uncapped in every demo account

Ask Agent · live dossierJIN HUI · IMO 9430272

Summarise the risk verdict and top drivers.

Reading the dossier — overview · sanctions · ownership · AIS

Risk verdict: BLOCK · score 100/100

The vessel is directly designated on multiple sanctions lists — EU, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK and Canada — for transporting Russian crude in breach of the G7/EU embargo and price-cap regime.

Top risk drivers

01Direct sanctions designation — The vessel itself — not an affiliated entity — is listed by at least five jurisdictions for Russian-oil transport violations.
02False / disclaimed Syrian flag — Syria has disclaimed the registry before the IMO — effectively stateless under UNCLOS.
03Undisclosed ownership & management — Registered owner, commercial and ISM manager all unknown — blocks beneficial-ownership screening.

Different desks. Same answer.

Banks & trade finance

Approve good trade. Decline the rest with a clean paper trail.

Sanctions and ownership exposure surfaced up front
Defensible reasoning for every decision
Faster turnaround on transaction review

Insurers

Underwrite the fleet you actually have on cover.

Vessel-level risk profile at quote and renewal
Behavioural change detection across the book
Evidence trail when a claim turns into a dispute

Traders & operators

Don't move cargo on a ship you wouldn't shake hands with.

Pre-fixture screening in seconds
Counterparty brief before you sign
Port and voyage reality, not the schedule

Brokers & charter desks

Bring intelligence to the table your clients can't get elsewhere.

Counterparty briefs you can share
Weekly market view by segment
A reason for the client to call you first

Built to be trusted. By the desks that carry the consequences.

Defensible by design

Every answer comes with the reasoning behind it — written in plain English your auditor and your front office can both read.

Built around human review

High-stakes calls always reach a person. Darkwater accelerates the analyst — it doesn't replace them.

Discreet by default

Early access, allowlisted desks, NDA on request. We treat your watchlist the way you treat it.

Darkwater produces decision-support intelligence. It does not constitute legal sanctions advice. Final compliance decisions remain with the regulated entity.

Maritime risk,
in plain English.

The questions desks ask before they screen a vessel, run counterparty due diligence, or act on a dark-fleet alert.

What is vessel sanctions screening?: Vessel sanctions screening checks a ship, its owners and counterparties against OFAC, EU, UK, UN and 20+ further sanctions lists, then layers in behavioural risk — ownership changes, AIS gaps, ship-to-ship transfers — to produce a defensible go/no-go decision before you finance, insure or charter the vessel.
Is Darkwater live today?: Yes. The platform is live in production with real sanctions data (20+ source lists with live-dated matches), live AIS feeds and real dark-fleet cases. Founding desks get a demo account — capped reports, an uncapped AI agent — before converting to paid founding access.
What is the Ask Agent copilot?: Ask Agent is an embedded AI copilot that reads the full vessel or counterparty dossier and answers analyst questions in place, with structured, sourced output — drivers, tables and citations. It is human-in-the-loop by design: it accelerates the analyst and documents the reasoning, it does not replace them.
What is the dark fleet (shadow fleet)?: The dark fleet — also called the shadow fleet — is the group of tankers and cargo vessels that evade sanctions through tactics like AIS spoofing, frequent identity changes and ship-to-ship transfers. Darkwater surfaces these behaviours as ranked, plain-English alerts.
Who is Darkwater for?: Darkwater is built for the desks that carry maritime risk: banks and trade finance, P&I and hull insurers, commodity traders, shipbrokers, charter desks, and sanctions and compliance teams.
How is Darkwater different from AIS vessel-tracking tools?: AIS trackers tell you where a ship is. Darkwater tells you whether to do business with it — turning ownership, behaviour, sanctions exposure and port history into one clear, auditable verdict per vessel.
Does Darkwater replace my compliance team?: No. Darkwater is decision-support intelligence that accelerates analysts and documents the reasoning. High-stakes calls still reach a person, and final compliance decisions remain with the regulated entity.

Be first on your fleet.
Get founding access.

We're onboarding a small group of founding desks. Tell us what you cover and we'll set you up with a demo account — capped reports, uncapped AI agent — and a working session on vessels you actually deal with.

Know the vesselbefore the money moves