A tanker drifted north of the island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea and according to the accident command, the tanker is carrying around 99,000 tons of oil.
As reported by Bild, the 248-meter-long vessel which sails under the Panama flag had loaded oil in the Russian Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga on the border with Estonia and set sail on 6 January has been drifting in the Baltic Sea. The destination port was given as Port Said in Egypt.
The tanker is suspected to be part of Russia’s shadow fleet. Additionally, according to publicly accessible shipping databases, the last voyages went to the Indian port of Visakhapatnam. India has not joined the sanctions against Russia and is now the largest customer for oil from Russia.
According to S&P Global, of the globally sanctioned fleet, over 220 are registered in Russia, 200 in Iran, and more than 150 in China. This top three is followed by ship registrations in North Korea, Barbados, Guyana (via fraudulent registrations), and Panama, which each have 30-60 sanctioned ships affiliated with their flags.
Panama’s planned executive decree to investigate registrations is therefore very pertinent and other flag states are advised to follow suit.
