Sanctioned Russian Shadow Fleet Tanker Leaking Oil Off Oman, Spill Grows Sevenfold in a Week

A sanctioned Russian shadow fleet tanker sitting broken off the coast of Oman is dumping crude oil into one of the Arabian Sea's few marine protected areas, and the spill is growing fast. The Caroline Bezengi, a 274-meter Suezmax tanker flagged to Cameroon, first reported trouble on June 8 off the Yemeni port of Mukalla, according to two maritime security sources cited by Reuters. Initial assessments pointed to an onboard explosion. The vessel has been stuck off Oman's Dhofar coast since. Satellite imagery reviewed by Greenpeace Germany shows the spill covering roughly 150 square kilometers as of early August, up from about 20 square kilometers a week earlier. Nina Noelle of Greenpeace Germany called the jump "a drastic increase" and said it's clear a large amount of crude is leaking. Nobody has publicly explained why the leak accelerated. Wim Zwijnenburg, a remote-sensing specialist with the Dutch peace organization PAX, told Reuters the darker slicks in the imagery indicate at least one hull on the ship has been breached. He said the oil sheen now stretches about 90 kilometers, nearly double its length a week prior. Thick black patches have already reached the southern and western shores of Qibliyah Island, an area home to endangered petrels and the rare Arabian Sea humpback whale. Zwijnenburg also flagged a timing problem: the region's monsoon season, which typically peaks in July and August, brings severe weather that could spread the crude even faster. An oil tanker specialist who reviewed the images told Reuters the vessel appears to be listing, and other maritime sources warned it could break apart. This ship was carrying Russian oil loaded at the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, according to ship tracking data reviewed by Reuters and satellite imagery from SynMax Maritime. The U.K. sanctioned the Caroline Bezengi for activity "whose object or effect is to destabilize Ukraine" or support the Russian government. The European Union, Canada, and Switzerland have also sanctioned it. The shadow fleet problem emerges clearly in this broken tanker. Russia keeps using aging, poorly maintained ships to move sanctioned oil around the world, dodging Western enforcement. When one of those ships breaks down, there's no clean chain of accountability. The vessel's owner is listed on shipping databases as Shanghai-based Rentoor Shipmanagement, which Reuters could not reach for comment. Oman's Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology has not responded to requests for comment from Reuters. That's a government whose coastline is now covered in crude, and it hasn't said publicly what it's doing about it. The International Maritime Organization, the U.N. body responsible for shipping safety, told Reuters that discussions among authorities are "ongoing" on how to address the safety and environmental risks, and that it's monitoring the situation. As of this reporting, the tanker has not broken apart, but it also hasn't been stabilized or offloaded. Nobody has announced a plan to remove the roughly 800,000 barrels of crude Zwijnenburg estimates it was carrying. Satellite imagery and expert analysis from Greenpeace Germany and PAX establish the spill is real, growing, and reaching protected shorelines. What caused the hull breach to accelerate, whether the June explosion is directly responsible, and where the ship was even headed before it grounded are all unconfirmed. The sanctions angle matters. The U.K., EU, Canada, and Switzerland sanctioned this vessel specifically because of its role in Russia's oil trade. Sanctions haven't stopped it from sailing, loading crude, breaking down, and now fouling a marine reserve that's home to one of the rarest whale populations on Earth. Whether that's a failure of enforcement or simply the unavoidable risk of aging tankers moving oil regardless of paperwork is a fair question critics of the sanctions regime are right to raise. No government or international body has announced a salvage operation, a cleanup timeline, or a cost estimate. The tanker is still sitting off Oman, still leaking, and the monsoon season Zwijnenburg warned about is only getting started.