OFAC Sanctions API
Oceangoing vessels and owners, if under sanction by a government, can be of high risk to charterers if put out on a spot market. Fines can amount to millions of dollars.
As part of enforcement efforts, OFAC publishes a list of individuals, vessels, and companies owned or controlled by targeted countries or designated under programs that are not country-specific. Collectively, such vessels and companies are called Specially Designated Nationals or SDNs. Oceangoing vessels and owners, if found on the SDN list, can be of high risk to charterers if hired on a spot market.
The 10 megabyte SDN database is publicly accessible and can be found on the U.S. Treasury website.
The following API searches the SDN database using exact match. The response aims to replicate the information that an analyst would relay when doing an OFAC search.
Method
Summary: The below API aims to replicate an
Endpoint: /api/ofac_sdn
Method: POST
Searches for entities in the OFAC SDN list and returns summarized query response.
Parameters:
entity(string, required): The entity name to search in the sanctions list.
Request Example:
curl -X POST https://www.shippingintel.com/api/ofac_sdn -d "entity=SILVER CLOUD"Success Response:
The data provided includes information about a vessel formerly known as Silver Cloud. The vessel’s previous names were Amol, Castor, Christina, and Argo 1. The vessel was flagged in Iran, previously flagged in Malta and Tuvalu, with a tonnage of 99,094 and a gross registered tonnage of 56,068. The vessel is classified as a Crude/Oil Products Tanker.
{
"response": "The data provided includes information about a vessel formerly known as Silver Cloud. The vessel's previous names were Amol, Castor, Christina, and Argo 1. It was flagged in Iran, previously flagged in Malta and Tuvalu, with a tonnage of 99,094 and a gross registered tonnage of 56,068. The vessel is classified as a Crude/Oil Products Tanker.",
"SDN database updated": "04 Jun 2024"
}Error Responses:
{
"error": "No entity is provided in call."
}{
"error": "An error occurred while processing the request: [error details]"
}Conclusion
The SDN database is up-to-date as of June / 2024. The APIs above are free-to-use until my token count becomes unmanageable. If anyone would like to use the API in a more robust manner contact me directly on LinkedIn.
Full API documentation can be found at ShippingIntel.
References
Office of Foreign Assets Control. (2024). Civil penalties and enforcement information. U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved [date you accessed the site], from https://ofac.treasury.gov/civil-penalties-and-enforcement-information
Office of Foreign Assets Control. (2024). Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN). U.S. Department of the Treasury. Retrieved [June 3rd, 2024 from https://ofac.treasury.gov/sanctions-list-service
ShippingIntel (2024). Software Development Tookit. Retrieved June 4th, 2024, from https://www.shippingintel.com/sdk
