A large, rusty crude oil tanker floating north through the Atlantic has become the centre of global interest after it was followed for days and eventually seized by US forces while Russia’s military also rushed towards it.
Despite not carrying any oil, the 300-metre-long ship is clearly of considerable value. Theories as to why range from speculation that high-value Russian weapons are hidden in the hull, to the ship’s potential to become a symbolic trophy in a transatlantic power struggle between Washington and Moscow.
Currently called the Marinera, the name-changing ship has long been part of the shadow or ghost fleets used by Russia, Iran and Venezuela to avoid western sanctions.
Washington and its European allies have long sought to crack down on the illicit maritime trade. Those efforts reached a critical point last month after US president Donald Trump imposed a naval blockade on sanctions-busting tankers operating near Venezuela, home to the world’s largest oil reserves and a key destination for shadow fleet vessels.
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The Marinera is the most notorious of the dozen or so oil tankers that have been trying to escape the blockade.
It has been under sanctions from the US treasury since July 2024 over accusations of carrying illicit cargo for Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hizbullah.
The US Coast Guard attempted to board it in the Caribbean in December as it headed for Venezuela, but the ship’s crew refused to co-operate.
There is precedent for the US boarding shadow-fleet ships. Last month, US special forces rappelled from helicopters to board the Skipper, a tanker off Venezuela that the US treasury had placed under sanctions in 2022.
But doing the same on the Marinera is very different, involving much higher stakes. While the Skipper was sailing under the flag of Guyana, the Marinera is Russian-registered and flagged.
That is a recent development, with the tanker’s crew hurriedly painting a Russian flag on the hull last month. Moscow later lodged a formal diplomatic protest demanding that Washington halt its high-seas pursuit.
By putting its own flag on some former shadow-fleet tankers, Moscow has in effect moved shadow-fleet vessels out of the shadows, in an open challenge to the West.
[ US naval aircraft flew over Ireland during pursuit of sanctioned oil tankerOpens in new window ]
Craig Kennedy, an associate at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, said the decision by Moscow to register the ship could have been an attempt to gain leverage by circumventing the US oil blockade on Venezuela.
“To seize a Russian-flagged ship on the high seas is to disregard Russia’s claims of exclusive jurisdiction over the vessel,” said Kennedy, adding that Moscow may have assumed the US would not board a Russian-flagged vessel.
But the Kremlin miscalculated how far Trump would go, Kennedy said.
Other theories suggest there may be something of value to Moscow within the ship. While it is empty of oil, the route it previously took between Iran and Venezuela is suspected of being a path for illicit trade, including for weapons.
Upping the stakes, Russia this week dispatched naval assets, including a submarine, to escort the tanker, according to the Wall Street Journal. That was reported hours before US forces boarded the ship, with Washington announcing the ship had been seized for “violations of US sanctions”.
For days, US surveillance aircraft had been monitoring the ship, and a British Royal Air Force spy plane appears to have flown over its path.
Speaking before US forces boarded the ship, John Foreman, a former UK defence attache to Moscow, said the scale of the operation was eye-catching.
“Why have the US put all these assets into the UK just for some oil tanker?” said the former official, now a defence analyst. “Could it be Russian arms going to Venezuela?” – The Guardian
