{
  "title": "OFAC-designated fleet flag-of-convenience rate by sanctions regime",
  "slug": "sanctioned-fleet-foc-by-program",
  "headline": "Flag-of-convenience reliance varies sharply by sanctions program: 79.2% of the Terror-finance / proliferation-program fleet flies a shell-jurisdiction flag versus 12.5% of the North Korea (DPRK)-program fleet — across 1,506 OFAC-designated vessels with a recorded flag (data as of 2026-10-15).",
  "column": "Sanctions regime (its flag-of-convenience rate)",
  "unit": "flag-of-convenience vessels",
  "total": 711,
  "rows": [
    {
      "label": "Iran — 65.9% flag of convenience",
      "count": 431,
      "pct": 60.6
    },
    {
      "label": "Russia — 41.7% flag of convenience",
      "count": 177,
      "pct": 24.9
    },
    {
      "label": "Terror-finance / proliferation — 79.2% flag of convenience",
      "count": 76,
      "pct": 10.7
    },
    {
      "label": "Venezuela — 23.3% flag of convenience",
      "count": 14,
      "pct": 2
    },
    {
      "label": "North Korea (DPRK) — 12.5% flag of convenience",
      "count": 12,
      "pct": 1.7
    },
    {
      "label": "Cuba — 33.3% flag of convenience",
      "count": 1,
      "pct": 0.1
    },
    {
      "label": "Other regimes (173 vessels: GLOMAG, ILLICIT-DRUGS-EO14059, LIBYA3) — 0% flag of convenience",
      "count": 0,
      "pct": 0
    }
  ],
  "methodology": [
    "A cross-tabulation of the existing by-flag and by-program datasets: for each OFAC sanctions program, the share of its flagged vessels that fly a Tier-3 flag-of-convenience / shell-jurisdiction register (the same jurisdiction-tier model the by-flag dataset uses).",
    "The % in each row label is that regime's OWN flag-of-convenience rate (its FoC vessels / its flagged vessels). The table is restricted to the flag-of-convenience fleet, so the row count is the regime's FoC vessel count and the row percentage is its share of the whole flag-of-convenience fleet.",
    "Computed over the 1,506 OFAC-designated vessels that carry a recorded flag in the SDN feed; each vessel is assigned to one strongest sanctions regime.",
    "A sanctioned state's own flag (North Korea's register, for example) is counted as a sanctioned-state flag, not a flag of convenience, exactly as in the by-flag dataset. A regime whose fleet mostly flies its own state's flag therefore shows a low flag-of-convenience rate.",
    "\"Other regimes\" groups the 173 flagged vessels designated under any other programme (mostly GLOMAG, ILLICIT-DRUGS-EO14059, LIBYA3). Their most common flags are China 157, Ecuador 10, Malta 6; 0 of them fly a flag-of-convenience register."
  ],
  "keywords": [
    "flag of convenience",
    "sanctions program",
    "OFAC SDN",
    "shadow fleet",
    "dark fleet",
    "Russia sanctions",
    "Iran sanctions"
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "key": "ofac",
      "name": "OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List",
      "url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/"
    }
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "provenance": {
    "source": "U.S. Treasury OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list",
    "source_url": "https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/",
    "data_as_of": "2026-10-15",
    "parsed_by": "ArcNautical screening engine (commit 4df8f50df)",
    "generated_at": "2026-10-16T08:09:05.634Z",
    "canonical": "https://arcnautical.com/data/sanctioned-fleet-foc-by-program/",
    "csv": "https://arcnautical.com/data/sanctioned-fleet-foc-by-program/data.csv",
    "reproducible": "Re-run scripts/generate-data-pages.ts against the same source. All figures use the same scoring modules as the ArcNautical vessel dossier (server/arcnautical/scoring)."
  },
  "extra": {
    "matrix": {
      "Iran": {
        "flagged": 654,
        "foc": 431,
        "focRate": 65.9
      },
      "Russia": {
        "flagged": 424,
        "foc": 177,
        "focRate": 41.7
      },
      "Terror-finance / proliferation": {
        "flagged": 96,
        "foc": 76,
        "focRate": 79.2
      },
      "Venezuela": {
        "flagged": 60,
        "foc": 14,
        "focRate": 23.3
      },
      "North Korea (DPRK)": {
        "flagged": 96,
        "foc": 12,
        "focRate": 12.5
      },
      "Cuba": {
        "flagged": 3,
        "foc": 1,
        "focRate": 33.3
      },
      "Other regimes": {
        "flagged": 173,
        "foc": 0,
        "focRate": 0
      }
    },
    "totalFlaggedVessels": 1506,
    "totalFocVessels": 711,
    "overallFocRate": 47.2
  }
}