Russian Freighter Drifts Towards Spanish Coast, Sparking Safety Concerns

A falsely flagged, sanctioned ship from Russia’s shadow fleet has been drifting in the Mediterranean without power, just 50 miles off the Costa del Sol. The engines of the 19-year-old Chariot Tide, which is carrying between 300,000 and 425,000 barrels of refined oil products, failed earlier this week in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Despite carrying oil from the Russian port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad Oblast, near the Estonian border, the vessel is currently sailing under a Mozambique flag. It has been drifting “Not Under Command” for several days, moving at just 0.2 to 1 knot, after nearly running aground against the Moroccan coast. The incident has sparked concerns of a major environmental disaster, similar to that of the 2002 Prestige disaster, which saw an oil tanker split apart off the coast of Galicia and caused Spain’s worst environmental catastrophe.

The crisis began on Thursday, when Chariot Tide suffered a catastrophic mechanical failure, leaving it adrift in the busiest shipping lanes of the Strait of Gibraltar. Moroccan tugs initially responded, preventing the vessel from running aground along the coast near Tangier.

However, instead of bringing the sanctioned vessel into a Moroccan port, authorities towed it eastward, pushing it into international waters and within Spain’s Search and Rescue (SAR) zone, according to The Olive Press.

The Spanish maritime rescue vessel Maria Zambrano is now closely monitoring the tanker, while the pollution control ship, Luz de Mar, is also on standby to ensure it does not drift into Spanish territorial waters. As of 11am on Monday (January 26), the tanker can still be seen in the Alboran Sea on MarineTraffic, with Maria Zambrano close by.

The vessel has been plagued by a history of “breakdowns”. In December, it experienced similar “technical issues” near critical undersea cables in the Baltic Sea, forcing the German Navy to board it.

The Chariot Tide is part of Russia’s “shadow fleet” – vessels known for using deceptive practices to bypass EU and UK sanctions. This incident comes after a number of major interventions over the past few weeks. Last Thursday (January 22), the French Navy dramatically seized the shadow tanker The Grinch and later diverted it to Marseille. Earlier this month, US and UK forces also intercepted the Bella 1, which was transporting Iranian and Venezuelan oil, in the North Atlantic for sanction violations.

The Spanish Government are said to be closely monitoring the ship and weighing up whether to allow the vessel to continue drifting and risking ecological disaster, or follow France’s lead and seize the tanker, thereby risking a diplomatic confrontation with Moscow.

There are major concerns that Chariot Tide’s cargo of refined diesel could wash up on beaches and seriously affect marine life in the Costa del Sol if its hull fails. It is sparking concerns of a repeat of the Prestige oil spill, which occurred off the coast of Galicia in November 2022, when the 26-year-old, structurally deficient oil tanker MV Prestige sank while carrying 77,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil, around 60,000 tonnes of which spilt into the sea.

The oil spill polluted 1,429 miles of coastline and more than 1,000 beaches along the Spanish, French and Portuguese coasts, and caused significant harm to the local fishing industry. The Prestige’s captain was found guilty and handed a nine-month suspended sentence for disobeying the Spanish authorities during the crisis.