The detained tanker Grinch being escorted by French vessels. Photo: Manon Cruz / Reuters
French authorities released the detained oil tanker Grinch (IMO: 9288851) after the company that owns the vessel paid a fine of “several million euros,” according to a Reuters report citing French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot.
“Circumventing European sanctions comes at a price. Russia will no longer be able to finance its war with impunity through a ghost fleet off our coasts,” Barrot tweeted earlier today, accompanying the post with footage of the vessel being boarded by French troops.
The tanker was intercepted in the Mediterranean in January and redirected to an anchorage point near Marseille based on the suspicion that it was involved in Russia’s “shadow fleet,” which Moscow has used to bypass international sanctions aimed at reducing its oil export revenues amid the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. The ship was sailing from Murmansk under the flag of the Comoros Islands. Its owner was fined for failing to establish the tanker’s right to use that flag.
As The Insider previously reported, Europe’s reluctance to confiscate “shadow fleet” vessels is largely the result of shortcomings in international maritime law. Under existing conventions, prolonged detention of a vessel in port is not allowed. After paying fines and passing technical inspections, a ship has to be released — otherwise the state risks lawsuits in international courts.
In a recent conversation with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged those constraints and said he intended to push for changes in legislation so that “shadow fleet” tankers could remain under arrest in the future. To date, the only known case of such a tanker being confiscated in Europe occurred in Germany in January 2025, when the vessel Eventin was towed away due to the environmental risk it posed. However, even in that case, the tanker’s legal status remains unresolved, as Germany’s Federal Fiscal Court blocked the confiscation last December.
Specialists interviewed by The Insider believe a real solution is reachable by way of a new international convention on ship registration under the auspices of the International Maritime Organization, a process they say would be lengthy. Truly effective measures, in their view, are likely to appear only after a major environmental incident, the probability of which is considered high due to the fact that “shadow fleet” tankers are generally quite old and often poorly maintained.