Most of the tankers in the world's "shadow fleet" subject to sanctions are old, corroded vessels, which dramatically increases the risk of oil spills and threatens a major environmental disaster, Anil Sharma, chief executive of the international consultancy GMS Partnership, told the Financial Times.
"At least a third of them should be scrapped, maybe more. Honestly, I would say it's more than half", he said. Sharma noted that the environmental disaster that could occur is comparable to the 1979 spill, which spilled more than 2 million barrels of oil into the sea.
The largest oil spill in 1979 occurred on June 3 on the Ixtoc I drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. An incident led to a drilling failure and oil spilled uncontrollably into the ocean for 9.5 months. Between 460,000 and 480,000 tons of oil entered the water. The leak was not fully contained until 1980.
According to Clarksons, the hidden fleet consists of approximately 1,800 ships, of which approximately 1,500 are oil and product tankers. Many of them are over 20 years old and their condition is at risk due to corrosion and outdated systems. The owners of these ships are extending their service lives thanks to lucrative trade amid the Gulf crisis, and sanctions are blocking legitimate recycling routes, the newspaper said.
“This is a ticking time bomb and everyone in the shipping industry knows it. These ships are uninsured, poorly maintained and poorly crewed – they are about to have an accident”, said Alexander Saveris, CEO of CMB Tech.