The Astro Sculptor oil tanker was already showing its age in February 2020 when inspectors reported problems with corroded decks and propulsion machinery on the then 17-year-old Greek-run ship.
But nearly four years later the vessel is still ploughing the oceans — part of the “grey fleet” of secretively run tankers assembled by the Kremlin and its partners to move Russian oil after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In November, the grey fleet accounted for more than half of oil exports from western Russia for the first time.
The grey fleet has helped Russia absorb the shock of the extensive western sanctions imposed on it one year ago when the EU banned imports of Russian crude into the bloc and with the G7 group of industrialised nations imposing restrictions on those wanting to import it.