This man tracks clandestine movements in Russia, Iran and Venezuela in his spare time (and all from the roof of his house)

After finishing his job as a food and beverage salesman, Remy Osman goes home to document clandestine activities and share them on the Internet

Some people watch Netflix in their free time. Remy Osman follows the trail of rusty tankers transporting illicit oil through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

From the roof of his Singapore apartment, the British expatriate, who works as a food and drink salesman, documents the passage of these ghost ships, often sanctioned by the US and other Western countries, for his growing online audience.

Shadow fleets, also known as ghost fleets or black fleets, are ships that use dark tactics to transport oil to rogue states such as Russia, Iran and Venezuela. Oil revenues from these fleets, made up of aging tankers and opaque ownership, have become crucial sources of financing for the .

In recent months, the US has been cracking down on clandestine fleets, having intercepted those sanctioned as part of President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign against Venezuela and its now-deposed leader, Nicolás Maduro, who was captured by the .

In the waters off Singapore, the clandestine industry is coming to light.

The Singapore Strait is a crucial shipping lane connecting the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Around 100,000 ships pass through these waters every year, together transporting around a third of all goods traded worldwide.

The strategic location of the strait also makes it a hub for clandestine fleets that transit between Iran, Russia and Venezuela and China, one of the world’s largest importers of oil subject to sanctions.

Osman has a front row seat.

“Singapore is probably the best place in the world to see (shadow ships),” says 32-year-old Osman.

While ships above a certain size are required under international law to keep their Automatic Identification System (AIS) locators turned on, ghost ships sometimes go dark to evade authorities. But as the Singapore Strait is very narrow, it is practically impossible for a ship to transit safely without turning on its tracker.

The strait is also so close to Singapore, a dense city home to around six million people, that Osman can see passing ships and take photos or videos of them with a simple iPhone.

Ghost Fleet Balloons

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent Western sanctions against Russian oil, the global ghost fleet has increased. While the ships’ deceptive tactics make them difficult to track, data and analytics firm Kpler estimated that the global ghost fleet comprised about 3,300 ships as of December 2025, representing about 6-7% of global crude oil flows.

The fleet is maintained through tactics such as fragmented ownership, rapid and repeated flag changes, manipulation of location data, and transferring cargo at sea at night or in areas with minimal supervision.

By 2025, more than $100 billion of crude oil has been moved through ghost and sanctioned fleets, according to Kpler.

Osman’s hobby began during the Covid-19 pandemic, when he was forced to quarantine for two weeks after moving to Singapore. He began watching ships from the balcony of his hotel room and documenting the passages online.

It was only about a year ago that Osman shifted his focus to ghost ships, after noticing that his audience was curious about clandestine fleets. Osman says his page has exploded in recent months as clandestine fleets have become news.

One of his videos on Instagram, from last August, has more than 2 million views.

There are several signs that a ship may be transporting illicit oil, explains Osman.

Osman consults ship tracking apps and looks for older tankers (20 to 25 years old) that are operating under flags belonging to nations with lax oversight, such as Guinea, Comoros, Gambia and Mozambique. Sometimes a ship flies the flag of Iran or Russia, without making any effort to hide, Osman reports.

When a ship piques his interest, Osman looks for its registration number and cross-references it with lists of sanctioned ships.

Where the ship is in the water also gives clues about its destination, Osman said. A ship that is high in the water should not be carrying much oil, while a deeper ship should be carrying more crude.

Last week, the US seized the Russian-flagged oil tanker Bella 1 in the North Atlantic after an 18-day pursuit that began when the tanker evaded the US Coast Guard as it headed to Venezuela to pick up oil.

The Bella 1, which was sanctioned by the US in 2024 for carrying illicit Iranian oil, was initially operating under a Guyanese flag, but the crew hastily painted a Russian flag on the tanker’s hull when the US followed.

The US has promised to enforce its embargo on ghost fleet ships illegally transporting oil – including seizing ships that evade sanctions.

Meanwhile, other countries are increasingly concerned about security threats posed by large ships that hide their presence in busy shipping channels.

In 2024, the United Kingdom launched a “call to action” urging coastal, port and flag states to respect maritime rules, collecting signatures from 50 countries.

The country’s Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, told the BBC this week that the UK is ready to work with European partners to “tighten the noose” on the clandestine fleet and adopt “a much more assertive and robust approach”.

Fastest route from East Asia to the Middle East

The fact that many of these ships are passing through the Singapore Strait is “purely a matter of geography”, explains Jennifer Parker, a former naval officer and non-resident fellow at the Lowy Institute of Australia. The waterway is the fastest route for ships sailing between East Asia and the Middle East.

The strait also serves as an ideal stopping point between sanctioned oil-producing countries and China, Parker explains.

According to analysts, the waters off Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia are a prime transit point for transfers of blacklisted oil between ships.

But because the Singapore Strait is considered an international waterway, it is not under Singapore’s jurisdiction and authorities have limited options to intervene, says Parker. Generally speaking, it is against international law for a country other than the flag state to board a ship unless it can prove that the flag is false, he adds.

“If these ships entered Singapore, the country could take action. But if they pass through the international strait, there are limits to what Singapore can do,” Parker points out.

Speaking to CNN, the Maritime and Port Authority (MPA) of Singapore states that it “closely monitors the movements of ships and behaviors associated with the ‘black fleet’ in the areas under its jurisdiction” and reports infractions to the International Maritime Organization.

However, the MPA also recognized its limited ability to act under international law.

“The Straits of Malacca and Singapore (SOMS) are straits used for international navigation, where ships enjoy the right of transit passage under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” states the MPA. The Strait of Malacca, between Indonesia and Malaysia, connects with the Strait of Singapore to the west.

“Since these straits constitute essential global maritime routes that must remain open to international navigation, this right of transit passage cannot be suspended under UNCLOS.”

On the day Osman spoke to CNN, he filmed a selfie video looking across Singapore’s towering residential buildings toward the blurred strait in the distance.

“I came to the roof to try to spot a sanctioned ghost fleet tanker,” says Osman in the video. “The ship I’m trying to spot is called Sahara. It’s sailing under the Guinea flag right now, and it’s a sanctioned ship.”

In another video shot with a camera with a zoom lens, Osman pointed to what he said was the Sahara, peeking out from behind tall buildings.

Marine Traffic data shows the Sahara passed through the Strait on Wednesday. The Sahara is the target of sanctions by the , the , the and the Ukraine due to its links to Russia.

“It’s fascinating to relate what is happening in global affairs with what I see out there”, confesses Osman.