Flagless Oil Tanker (Ghost Fleet/DarkFleet) Near Fuerteventura

Absolute Maritime Chaos in the Canary Islands’ Exclusive Economic Zone by Surveillance Systems

During yesterday, a tanker belonging to the Dark Fleet—also known as the ghost fleet—was spotted sailing between Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria. The vessel poses a clear danger to the Canary coasts due to its age and the lack of oversight by its operator.

“This jewel carries 850,000 barrels of Russian crude on board. A genuine phantom tanker from the hard core of DarkFleet freight,” explains RMA&T on its X platform.

The tanker, flagged under Zambia, was transferred by its former operator in 2022 to a shell company that provides charters for Russian oil. Briefly flying a Russian flag, the ship later switched to a false flag and now constitutes an environmental time bomb within Spain’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

“Without a single official vessel providing escort or a maritime patrol flight to send an external control message over your waters,” the source adds, “because although the EEZ does not entail sovereignty, it does have environmental jurisdiction.”