Sanctioned Tanker Caroline Bezengi Still Leaking Oil Off Oman
Monsoon weather has kept salvors off the wreck for two months
The sanctioned tanker Caroline Bezengi (IMO 9224439) remains beached on rocks off the southwest tip of Jazirat Al Qibliyyah, one of the Hallaniyat Islands off Oman's Dhofar coast, where it has lain since about June 23. Oil is still escaping from the hull.
The vessel was disabled by an explosion on June 8 while off the Omani coast. It had completed a Suez Canal transit on May 30 and had left the Maritime Security Transit Corridor when the blast occurred. The crew was taken off without injury some four days later. The cargo had been loaded at Novorossiysk and was bound for Gujarat. The ship is a sanctioned vessel under European Union, United Kingdom and US Office of Foreign Assets Control measures, and has a past association with Russian state owner Sovcomflot.
The maritime security consultancy Ambrey has been mandated to oversee the salvage. Its brief covers lightering the cargo if that proves feasible, refloating and recovering the tanker if its condition allows, and standing up an oil cleanup operation to activate in the event that the hull breaks up. No operational update has been issued from the site.
Satellite imagery captured on August 22 suggests the tanker has settled further in the water, possibly with some deformation of the hull, although the volume of oil escaping does not appear to have increased significantly. On the day of the overflight the plume was tracking east into the North Arabian Sea, consistent with a prevailing southwesterly, which reduces the amount coming ashore in the Ras Madrakah area.
Those conditions are expected to hold for at least another week. Wind speeds are averaging around 16 metres per second, gusting to 26, with wave heights over 10 feet. Lightering or rebalancing the cargo of an oil tanker in that sea state would be hazardous. No salvage-associated vessels are visible in the imagery, either off the wreck or in the harbour at Hallaniyat that Ambrey had intended to use as a base camp.
Ambrey was certified as a full member of the International Salvage Union only in May of this year, but it coordinated the recovery of the Greek-registered tanker Sounion (IMO 9312145) after a sustained Houthi attack in the Red Sea in August 2024. The crew was evacuated by units from the European Union's Operation Aspides, after which the Houthis raided the tanker and set fires using explosive charges. The Ambrey-coordinated operation landed a salvage crew back aboard while the vessel was still burning and under threat, took it under tow northwards, and recovered most of the cargo.
For now the salvage plan depends on the Caroline Bezengi holding together without a substantial increase in leakage until the end of the Khareef monsoon season. A change in the prevailing weather and associated sea states is not yet visible in medium-term forecasting.
