In May last year an ageing tanker loaded with Russian oil dropped anchor two nautical miles off Denmark’s coast after its engine failed, leaving it without power for six hours.
Built in 2005, the Canis Power was already well past her best and in the shipping industry the incident was viewed as a warning. Like other vessels in the so-called shadow fleet that transports Russian oil, the ultimate owner of the elderly ship was unknown. Had the incident resulted in a collision or a spill of its 300,000 barrels of oil, it was unclear who, if anyone, would have covered the costs.
Since the first western restrictions on Russian oil exports were introduced in December 2022, Moscow has assembled a fleet of more than 400 such vessels currently moving some 4mn barrels of oil a day beyond the reach of the sanctions and generating billions of dollars a year in additional revenue for its war in Ukraine.