Decaying Russian oil tankers threaten Irish west coast

The Myra encountered hurricane-force winds about 350 kilometres off Ireland’s west coast. Nine-metre waves swept over the 228-metre tanker, while winds reached 130 kilometres per hour. Someone aboard sent an SOS at 12:38pm, raising fears that the ship was in serious trouble or leaking oil.

An RAF Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft left Scotland soon afterward and headed toward the tanker. The crew contacted the Myra by radio, but the ship said the distress call was a false alarm. It continued south through rough seas and strong winds.

The next day, the Irish Coast Guard sent an aeroplane to inspect the tanker near Mayo. It photographed the Myra for signs of storm damage or pollution. The vessel was empty, so an immediate oil spill risk was lower, but inspectors had previously found serious defects aboard it.

Russia’s “shadow fleet” is a group of hundreds of vessels used to evade international sanctions. Many are ageing oil tankers registered under false flags or linked to opaque companies. Their ownership, registration, and movements can be difficult for authorities to track.

The Myra illustrates the method. It claimed to be registered in Cameroon, but International Maritime Organisation records said that claim was false. The ship had left Russia and was regularly used to transport Russian oil. It was also linked to a company owned by the son of a senior Iranian regime figure.

Sanctions make these ships risky to stop, but do not automatically give every country power to seize them. The fleet can therefore change routes when enforcement increases elsewhere. After British boarding operations became a real risk in the English Channel, shadow fleet tankers increasingly travelled around Scotland and west of Ireland.

The scale is striking: 218 shadow fleet vessels have passed through Ireland’s Exclusive Economic Zone since the start of this year. The figure comes from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, and some vessels made multiple journeys through the zone.

Most were sanctioned. According to the data supplied to The Irish Times, 208 of the 218 ships were under European Union sanctions. The remaining vessels were sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, or New Zealand. This means sanctioned traffic makes up almost all of the recorded shadow fleet movement.

The number represents a sharp increase. Defence Forces figures show shadow fleet activity in Irish EEZ waters rose by 193 per cent compared with the same period in 2025. The increase followed stronger British enforcement in the English Channel, which pushed vessels toward the longer route around Ireland.

Sanctioned tankers are avoiding the English Channel because active enforcement there has become a real possibility. The Channel is normally a shorter and safer route than the exposed North Atlantic, but British threats changed the calculation for shadow fleet operators.

The United Kingdom followed through in June. Royal Marine Commandos boarded the sanctioned tanker Smyrtos as it travelled through the Channel. After that, tankers, particularly those using false flags, began diverting north of Scotland and west of Ireland. The shift moved traffic into stormier waters.

The western route is longer and more dangerous, but it offers a major enforcement advantage. Irish authorities have limited capacity to seize these vessels. A Defence Forces spokesman said the route change reflected a new “pattern of life” after the British boarding announcement. Consequently, more sanctioned tankers now cross Ireland’s EEZ.

Age and poor maintenance make these tankers especially vulnerable in the North Atlantic. Storms place enormous stress on a ship’s structure, machinery, and watertight barriers. A vessel with known defects has less ability to withstand waves, wind, fire, or flooding.

The Myra is a concrete example. It is 20 years old, and inspectors in Australia, Belgium, Russia, and the United States identified 10 serious defects since 2020. These included problems with fire safety, structural integrity, and watertightness. Inspectors also found substandard pollution-control measures on shadow fleet vessels.

The route west of Ireland exposes ships to stormy North Atlantic conditions. About half of the Russian tankers using that route are carrying large quantities of crude oil. If a weakened tanker suffers structural failure or loses watertightness, oil could escape and emergency crews would face difficult rescue and containment conditions.

A major collision or spill could release huge quantities of oil into waters beside Ireland’s west coast. The area contains vulnerable marine ecosystems, so pollution could damage wildlife and coastal environments over a wide area. The article describes the consequences of one shadow fleet spill as potentially devastating.

The risk is not merely theoretical. Worldwide, shadow fleet vessels have been involved in more than 50 collisions and oil spills in recent years. Most recently, a sanctioned tanker carrying up to 40 million gallons of Russian oil ran aground off Oman and contaminated many kilometres of coastline.

Ireland faces increasing exposure because 218 shadow fleet vessels have crossed its EEZ this year, and many have serious safety problems. Around half of Russian tankers on the route carry crude oil. The combination of heavy cargoes, ageing ships, and North Atlantic storms creates what one expert called “exponential environmental risks.”

An Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, is a sea area where a coastal country maintains certain sovereign rights. Ireland’s EEZ covers about 450,000 square kilometres off the west coast. The zone gives Ireland an important interest in activity there, including potential pollution and security risks.

However, an EEZ is not described in the article as an area where Ireland can automatically control every ship. Shadow fleet tankers can pass through it, even when sanctioned by the EU or other countries. Irish authorities inspected the Myra from an aircraft and photographed it, rather than seizing it.

The article links this limitation to Ireland’s enforcement capacity. A Defence Forces spokesman said vessels chose the western route because Irish authorities had limited capacity to seize them. Ireland can monitor and gather evidence, but enforcement against foreign tankers depends on available powers, resources, and wider international action.