Every vessel on the map, screened against OFAC SDN.
Every ship on the Intel Desk AIS map is now continuously matched against the US Treasury OFAC Specially Designated Nationals list. Sanctioned vessels light up red in the vessel panel with the listing reason attached.
What shipped
OFAC Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) screening is now live on the intel map. Every MMSI and IMO in the AIS feed is matched against the SDN list on ingestion, and the match result is cached in the vessel row. When a user clicks a vessel marker in the Hormuz corridor, they see the name, flag, type, last-known speed and heading, and, if the ship is sanctioned, a red SDN flag with the listing reason, listing date and sanctions programme.
- Continuous matching. Every vessel row is re-checked on every AIS refresh. New OFAC designations flip the vessel's flag to red without operator intervention.
- Listing reason attached. The SDN tag carries the listing reason string from the Treasury publication, so it is clear at a glance whether a ship is sanctioned for Iran-related, Venezuela-related or other programmes.
- Fuzzy name matching. Shell companies and repainted vessels frequently re-register. The match layer carries fuzzy-name logic plus IMO matching to reduce evasion via name changes.
- Shadow fleet highlights. Known shadow-fleet tankers transiting the Gulf are now immediately visible as a red cluster rather than buried in the vessel list.
Why this matters
Oil trading and compliance desks ask the same question in a crisis: which of the tankers currently in the Strait are sanctioned, and which are clean? The answer should take seconds, not hours. The SDN layer turns that into a one-click check on the live map instead of a hand-joined spreadsheet exercise.
What comes next
Next on this track: UK HMT and EU consolidated sanctions lists, plus a vessel-history view that shows the full arc of a ship's AIS track with any dark-period gaps highlighted. For the wider sanctioned-shipping method notes, see the methodology.