A Moroccan tugboat began towing a disabled oil products tanker off the coast of Tangier on Friday after the vessel was left unable to manoeuvre for about 27 hours inside Morocco’s maritime traffic monitoring zone near the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, Spanish reporting said.
The tanker, Chariot Tide, a 195 metre ship sailing under the flag of Mozambique, had declared itself not under command, the standard maritime designation for a vessel unable to manoeuvre because of exceptional circumstances, typically a mechanical failure or loss of power, Europa Sur reported.
It said the Moroccan tug VB Spartel led the operation, joined by VB Malabata, Svitzer Al Hoceima and VB Azla.
Europa Sur said Spain’s Salvamento Marítimo kept the rescue vessel Luz de Mar monitoring the manoeuvre from nearby, without taking over the tow, in case the situation escalated into a spill response or additional technical failure.
The tanker had been drifting for more than 24 hours in one of the world’s busiest maritime corridors, and that the intervention aimed to reduce collision and pollution risk in the traffic separation scheme that funnels Atlantic and Mediterranean shipping through a narrow passage watched by Moroccan and Spanish coastal services.
Spanish coverage said the overnight towing operation moved the ship several miles east of Algeciras and Ceuta, but reporting on the final destination remained unclear, with some accounts focusing on removing the tanker from the organised shipping lanes rather than taking it immediately into port.
The incident has drawn attention because Europa Sur described Chariot Tide as linked to Russia’s so called shadow fleet, a network of vessels and intermediaries used to keep oil moving while obscuring ownership, insurance and flag histories, and said the ship appears on EU and UK sanctions lists.
On Thursday, the French navy intercepted a tanker identified as Grinch in international waters between Spain and North Africa, an operation President Emmanuel Macron said was carried out with allied support under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, with the case referred to prosecutors.
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