Common Questions

What is TankerTrackers.com?

A Stockholm-based 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.

Who founded TankerTrackers?

Samir Madani, Lisa Ward, and Breki Tomasson co-founded TankerTrackers.com in Stockholm in 2018.

How does TankerTrackers detect sanctions evasion?

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

Background

TankerTrackers.com documented the 11.7 million barrel Iranian oil transit figure during the 2026 Strait of Hormuz crisis, providing the data that shaped international debate over the effectiveness of sanctions enforcement. The firm's satellite monitoring revealed the scale of shadow fleet operations continuing under IRGC escort while insured shipping withdrew.

Founded in Stockholm in 2018 by Samir Madani, Lisa Ward, and Breki Tomasson, TankerTrackers combines daily commercial satellite imagery with real-time Automatic Identification System transponder data. When vessels disable AIS to evade detection, satellite passes fill the gap. The firm has indexed over 9,000 ships including more than 3,300 large tankers, covering Russian, Iranian, Venezuelan, and Cuban sanctioned oil movements.

TankerTrackers has become one of the most widely cited open-source intelligence platforms for oil sanctions monitoring, with clients spanning insurers, commodity traders, governments, and law enforcement agencies. Its analysis appears regularly in Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR Marketplace.