Common Questions

Who is Samir Madani?

Swedish open-source intelligence analyst and co-founder of TankerTrackers.com, a Stockholm-based firm that uses satellite imagery and AIS data to track sanctioned oil tanker movements globally.

What is TankerTrackers.com?

An OSINT platform founded in 2018 that monitors sanctioned oil shipments by combining satellite imagery with vessel transponder data. It has indexed over 9,000 ships.

How does TankerTrackers detect sanctions evasion?

When tankers disable their AIS transponders to evade detection, TankerTrackers uses daily commercial satellite passes to locate vessels and document ship-to-ship transfers, flag changes, and ownership obfuscation.

Background

Samir Madani's TankerTrackers.com provided the 11.7 million barrel Iranian oil transit figure that shaped international debate during the 2026 Iran conflict, documenting tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz when twenty thousand seafarers were trapped in the closed waterway. His data tracked the shadow fleet vessels that continued operating under IRGC escort as insured shipping withdrew.

Madani is a Swedish analyst of Kuwaiti origin who spent two decades in technology at Ericsson and Dovado before co-founding TankerTrackers in Stockholm in 2018 with Lisa Ward and Breki Tomasson. The firm combines daily satellite imagery with AIS vessel transponder data to detect sanctions evasion: transponder manipulation, ship-to-ship transfers, and flag hopping. It has indexed over 9,000 ships including 3,300 large tankers.

His analysis appears regularly in Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR Marketplace, making TankerTrackers one of the most widely cited open-source intelligence platforms for oil sanctions enforcement. Clients span insurers, commodity traders, governments, and law enforcement agencies across multiple jurisdictions.