Shadow fleet tankers too old to sail, need scrapping
An increasing number of the aging oil tankers that Russia assembled to export its crude, thus bypassing Western sanctions, are reaching the end of their operational life and require scrapping.
According to S&P Global data, the average age of vessels in this "shadow fleet" is 20 years, with 60% of them being 20 years old or even older.
The small companies that own them "would struggle to afford shiny new ships, even if they desperately wanted to; these are often at the end of their lives," writes Elisabeth Braw, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and author of the book Goodbye Globalisation, as quoted by The Moscow Times.
After a few years of operation in the shadow fleet, these tankers—which would have been better suited for the scrapyard even at the time of purchase—"are simply becoming too old to sail, especially as they undergo only the most cursory technical maintenance," Braw observes.
In November, the dismantling of the tanker Eagle S began in the Turkish port of Aliaga. The vessel gained notoriety late last year after its anchor damaged several subsea cables in the Gulf of Finland. The ship was detained by the Finnish Coast Guard, and the captain and two crew members were brought before the court. Finnish authorities claimed that espionage equipment may also have been found aboard the tanker.
The 19-year-old Eagle S was sailing under the flag of the Cook Islands and had been transporting Russian oil since the beginning of 2023.
The operational lifespan of many vessels in the "ghost fleet" has already been exceeded, which is why "these rust buckets only function for a short period before being taken out of service," Braw emphasizes. Officially, 409 ships were scrapped in 2024. The safest demolitions take place in Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands; relatively safe in Turkey, yet two-thirds are dismantled in Southeast Asian countries, primarily India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, where safety regulations are rarely followed, The Moscow Times notes.
Translation by Iurie Tataru
