Caroline Bezengi — grounded sanctioned tanker breaking up, major oil spill

What happened

The Cameroon-flagged (a flag it lost in a June deregistration crackdown on sanctioned tankers) Suezmax tanker Caroline Bezengi, sanctioned by the EU, UK, US (OFAC), Canada and Switzerland over alleged links to Russian oil exports and past association with state shipowner Sovcomflot, suffered an explosion on 8 June 2026 while transiting off Oman's Dhofar coast shortly after leaving the Maritime Security Transit Corridor, having departed Novorossiysk, Russia, with a full cargo bound for India. The crew was evacuated without injury about four days later, and the unmanned tanker subsequently grounded on rocks at the southwest tip of Jazirat Al Qibliyyah in the Hallaniyat Islands. An Omani onboard survey on 12 July found the vessel sinking deeper and listing further, with crude leaking into ballast tanks and the double-hull spacing (raising an explosion risk from trapped fumes); only one of its cargo tanks remained unbreached. Oman's Ministry of Transport issued a 24-hour removal directive to the registered owner/manager, Shanghai-based Rentoor Ship Management, on 23 July, but the company did not respond and its listed address appears to be a residential mail drop, a pattern The Maritime Executive said is typical of dark-fleet tanker registrations. By 4-5 August, Greenpeace Germany and satellite imagery reviewed by the Associated Press showed the spill had expanded to roughly 150 sq km (58 sq miles), with oil reaching Qabliyah Island itself; environmental experts warned the vessel may be sinking deeper still, with no visible sign of a major response operation. No responder, salvage timeline, or containment measures were confirmed in the cited reporting as of this entry.