{
  "title": "OFAC-designated vessel fleet by flag-transparency tier",
  "slug": "sanctioned-fleet-by-flag",
  "headline": "Of 1,515 OFAC-designated vessels with a recorded flag, 47.4% fly a flag-of-convenience / shell-jurisdiction register and only 0.4% fly a flag from a transparent public-UBO register (data as of 2026-10-21).",
  "column": "Flag-transparency tier",
  "unit": "vessels",
  "total": 1515,
  "rows": [
    {
      "label": "Shell / flag-of-convenience (Tier 3)",
      "count": 718,
      "pct": 47.4
    },
    {
      "label": "Sanctioned-state flag",
      "count": 550,
      "pct": 36.3
    },
    {
      "label": "Restricted register (Tier 2)",
      "count": 190,
      "pct": 12.5
    },
    {
      "label": "Other / unclassified",
      "count": 51,
      "pct": 3.4
    },
    {
      "label": "Transparent register (Tier 1)",
      "count": 6,
      "pct": 0.4
    }
  ],
  "methodology": [
    "Counted by vessel, not tonnage: OFAC records a usable tonnage figure for under ~4% of designated vessels, so a tonnage weighting would come from an unrepresentative sample.",
    "The flag-transparency tier is the SAME classifier the ArcNautical vessel dossier uses (jurisdiction-tiers): Tier 1 = public beneficial-ownership register (EU/UK/Norway/Iceland); Tier 3 = classic flag-of-convenience / tax-haven registry where UBO disclosure is restricted; sanctioned-state flags are reported separately from commercial flags of convenience.",
    "Excludes the 53 designated vessels with no recorded flag in the SDN feed."
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "sanctioned vessels",
    "flag of convenience",
    "OFAC SDN",
    "shadow fleet",
    "dark fleet",
    "flag state"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "key": "ofac",
      "name": "OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List",
      "url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/"
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "provenance": {
    "source": "U.S. Treasury OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list",
    "source_url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/",
    "data_as_of": "2026-10-21",
    "parsed_by": "ArcNautical screening engine (commit 70618f2e8)",
    "generated_at": "2026-10-23T02:35:01.829Z",
    "canonical": "https://arcnautical.com/data/sanctioned-fleet-by-flag/",
    "csv": "https://arcnautical.com/data/sanctioned-fleet-by-flag/data.csv",
    "reproducible": "Re-run scripts/generate-data-pages.ts against the same source. All figures use the same scoring modules as the ArcNautical vessel dossier (server/arcnautical/scoring)."
  },
  "extra": {
    "topFlags": [
      {
        "flag": "Panama",
        "count": 277,
        "pct": 18.3
      },
      {
        "flag": "Russia",
        "count": 243,
        "pct": 16
      },
      {
        "flag": "Iran",
        "count": 192,
        "pct": 12.7
      },
      {
        "flag": "China",
        "count": 158,
        "pct": 10.4
      },
      {
        "flag": "Democratic People's Republic of Korea",
        "count": 73,
        "pct": 4.8
      },
      {
        "flag": "Barbados",
        "count": 72,
        "pct": 4.8
      },
      {
        "flag": "Liberia",
        "count": 58,
        "pct": 3.8
      },
      {
        "flag": "Palau",
        "count": 54,
        "pct": 3.6
      },
      {
        "flag": "Venezuela",
        "count": 38,
        "pct": 2.5
      },
      {
        "flag": "Comoros",
        "count": 37,
        "pct": 2.4
      },
      {
        "flag": "Cook Islands",
        "count": 36,
        "pct": 2.4
      },
      {
        "flag": "Gabon",
        "count": 31,
        "pct": 2
      }
    ],
    "designatedVesselsTotal": 1568,
    "flagRecorded": 1515
  }
}