On 21 March, the crew of the non-profit rescue group Sea-Watch sighted something unusual in the Mediterranean.
Instead of migrants looking for help, the group’s Seabird plane had found the abandoned hulk of the Arctic Metagaz. This 277-metre-long tanker had been drifting since it was damaged in a suspected Ukrainian drone attack near Malta in March.
The tanker, which set off from the Russian port of Murmansk in February for Port Said in Egypt, was believed to be carrying about 60,000 tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG), alongside 450 tonnes of fuel oil and 250 tonnes of diesel. Images shared by Sea-Watch, the civil sea rescue operator responsible for Seabird, show extensive damage to the vessel’s hull, raising concerns over an environmental catastrophe.
The crew reportedly returned to Russia, leaving the damaged ship to drift. First towards Italy’s coastline and then, as the winds shifted, towards Libya. By April 22 it was some 120 nautical miles north of Libya’s coastal city of Benghazi, according to the Libyan Ports and Maritime Transport Authority (IALA).
The Arctic Metagaz is a part of the so-called “shadow fleet”, which has grown in importance for Russia – and for other nations also subject to western sanctions. The fleet brings oil and gas to their customers around the world while evading these sanctions, which, for example, target ships known to have Russian links. This means the products in question are increasingly being transported by a network of ageing, poorly maintained and often uninsured vessels of unclear ownership. They also engage in risky activities, such as turning off tracking systems and transferring oil at sea.
The Arctic Metagaz was sanctioned by the US for being part of Russia’s “shadow fleet”. Such sanctioned ships often lack proper insurance, are poorly maintained and conduct risky ship-to-ship transfers of oil cargo (Image: Clara Marnette / Sea-Watch)
Growing global conflict is exacerbating this situation. Already able to attack shadow fleet vessels near Turkey, Ukraine’s Arctic Metagaz attack demonstrated its ability to strike at greater distances than before. And tankers of all kinds have been at risk due to the Gulf conflict, including at least one sanctioned vessel – reportedly crewed by Iranians – struck in mysterious circumstances.
The fallout from these practices is increasingly causing problems for nations with little capacity to deal with them, often precisely because this state of affairs suits the shadow fleet’s purposes. These nations are typically in the Global South.
Shadow fleets, solid risks
The Arctic Metagaz was sanctioned by the US for being part of Russia’s shadow fleet. Such vessels sometimes use flags of convenience and vague ownership details to bypass western sanctions on oil and gas trade with nations including Russia and Iran.
What is a flag of convenience?
The flag of a country a ship is registered under to avoid regulation and scrutiny
These ships often lack proper insurance, are poorly maintained and conduct risky ship-to-ship oil transfers. Each of these factors poses severe environmental risks.
“If a vessel is prepared to go under the radar (and I mean quite literally: turning its … tracking systems off to not be detected), then there’s a very strong likelihood that they will be ignoring a whole raft of other safety and environmental regulations,” claims Sian Prior, the lead advisor to a coalition of environmental groups called the Clean Arctic Alliance. “Countries don’t know that these ships are there, other ships don’t know that they’re there, increasing the risks around shipping globally.”
The LNG cargo of the Arctic Metagaz is highly flammable and explosive.
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