Barstad: Owner of Shadow Fleet Tanker Couldn't Be Found After Collision

After the tanker Front Eagle collided with the "dark fleet" tanker Adalynn in the Gulf of Oman earlier this week, operator Frontline couldn't even find a way to reach Adalynn's owner to talk about the casualty, boss Lars Barstad said at a panel at Marine Money on Wednesday. The Adalynn's anonymous controlling interests made no response.

“This was the first time Frontline was exposed directly to the dark fleet," Barstad said. “It is an insane situation that we cannot conduct contact."

Adalynn and the tanker Front Eagle were in collision at a position about 22 nm off the coast of Khor Fakkan, UAE early Tuesday morning (local time). The impact sparked fires aboard both vessels; Front Eagle's crew was able to extinguish the blaze aboard their ship, but Adalynn's crewmembers did not have success in containing the fire. They abandoned ship, and all 24 were safely rescued by first responders.

All told, the response to the casualty was successful, Barstad said, and it was not a worst-case scenario. He said that time will tell when it comes to the root cause of the collision, and suggested that it could have been a mechanical casualty aboard the Adalynn. Barstad denied that AIS jamming played any role.

After the collision, Frontline attempted to get in touch with Adalynn's owners, but found that it could not find an individual to talk to. Frontline had to find out from a local agent - not the shipowner - that Adalynn's crew made it safely ashore and were lodged in a hotel.

The Adalynn's listed operator has an address in an older office complex in Navi Mumbai, India. The building is home to multiple logistics, seafarer training and ship management firms, but has no public directory to confirm whether the Adalynn's operator is a tenant.

The Indian company operates two aging tankers - Adalynn, flagged in Antigua, and Carcharodon, which is sanctioned by the United Kingdom for moving Russian oil. Both Adalynn and Carcharodon are sanctioned by the government of Ukraine for involvement in Russia's shadowy oil trade.