The US Treasury Department may allow companies to buy sanctioned shipping vessels and return them to legitimate shipping on a case-by-case basis, according to a government source and a person with knowledge of the matter.
“Treasury may consider proposals from legitimate shipping actors to purchase and restore shadow fleet vessels to the licit shipping industry on a case-by-case basis,” a US official told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy.
This approach “ensures that no sanctioned person receives any benefit, and reduces the size of the fleet overall, while helping address pressures on the global energy market,” the US official said.
Another source with knowledge of the matter said Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control could be targeting 50-80 sanctioned tankers owned by non-sanctioned companies. There could be 20-30 owners willing to move quickly, the source said.
At the end of September, there were a total of 1,225 tankers sanctioned by the US, UK or EU, S&P Global Commodities at Sea(opens in a new tab) said in an Oct. 29 shadow tanker report. Of those, 560 were sanctioned by the US.
Shadow tankers are increasingly being drawn into the compliant market due to rising freight rates, according to a separate CAS market impact report issued Oct. 23.
In 2026, 41 shadow-fleet crude tankers entered compliant trade through Oct. 20, with 68% remaining fully compliant so far, compared with just 17.5% of vessels that remained compliant in 2025.
The shift to continued compliance was particularly notable in the third quarter when mainstream tanker earnings surged, the report said. Dirty Arab Gulf-China VLCC freight averaged approximately $197/mt in September, up 77% from August, the report said.
CAS defines the shadow fleet as tankers that have transported Iranian or Russian oil in the last two years, vessels subject to US sanctions, and vessels with unknown or suspected false flag registrations.
