Ghost Ships Skirt Sanctions in Venezuelan Oil Trade

An increasing number of "zombie" or "phantom" oil tankers—vessels that assume the identities of scrapped ships—have emerged off Venezuela's coast, allowing dark fleet operators to circumvent U.S. trade restrictions on global oil transport.  According to a Bloomberg report, one of these zombie tankers was recently spotted off the waters of Malaysia after a two-month voyage from Venezuela, raising many red flags.  The report describes how dark fleet operators transform tankers into floating zombies:   The vessel raised…