GERMAN emergency services have secured a dark fleet* tanker laden with more than 500,000 barrels of oil that was disabled and drifting inside German territorial waters off the coast of Rügen, according to German media and casualty reports.

The 19-year-old, Panama-flagged Eventin (IMO: 9308065) is part of the sanctions-circumventing fleet of tankers solely deployed in Russian trades and was formerly managed and operated by UAE-based, UK-sanctioned Fractal Shipping. 

The tanker was taken under tow by VB Bremen Fighter (IMO: 9321287) to an unspecified port in Germany, according to media reports.

The vessel has P&I insurance with West of England P&I Club, according to the International Group website.

Eventin was first reported to be drifting after mechanical failure at 2140 hrs UK time on January 9, with 99,000 tonnes of oil, based on casualty reports. The last AIS signal was at 0400 hrs, on January 10.

The cargo of fuel oil was loaded at Russian port of Ust-Luga around January 6 according to commodities tracking provider, Vortexa.

Eventin’s registered owner is Marshall Islands-incorporated single-ship owner Laliya Shipping Corporation with ISM manager Wanta Shipping LLC-FZ. UAE-based Wanta Shipping manages 18 tankers, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data.

The vessel was operated by Fractal Shipping via Fractal Marine DMCC until January 2023, in the months immediately after its purchase by an anonymous beneficial owner in August 2022.

Geneva-based Fractal was formed in 2022 by former Socar executive Mathieu Phillipe. It quickly amassed a fleet of 27 tankers with an average age of 17 years all deployed in Russian trades, capitalising on hefty freight premiums emanating from Western sanctions on Russia.

Fractal Shipping disbanded shortly after its UAE subsidiary was sanctioned by the UK for breaching sanctions on Russia in February 2024 and tankers including Eventin were operated by newly reorganised structures.

This is the second elderly Russia-trading tanker in two weeks experiencing mechanical failure in the Baltic. Tanker Jazz (IMO: 9337327) was drifting off Finland on December 30 but crew fixed the problem and it recommenced its voyage to Russia.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.

Download our explainer on the different risk profiles of the dark fleet here