A shadow fleet tanker linked to India’s Gatik Ship Management has been detained by port state control in Gibraltar after its Russian crew complained they had not been paid.

The 50,921-dwt Electra (built 2005) was stopped on Thursday a week after a ship-to-ship transfer of Russian oil products off the coast of Greece, according to Kpler tracking data.

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It had loaded 300,000 barrels of naphtha from the Russian port of Ust-Luga in November and December.

The ship was in ballast when it called into Gibraltar to take on stores and change the crew, Gibraltar maritime authorities said.

The detention followed a complaint by crew members that they had not been paid for two months, a circumstance attributed to the Western sanctions regime directed at Russia.

Payments had been attempted in different ways but were blocked because of Russia-linked banking restrictions, according to a source close to the case.

“Fresh payments will be reaching the vessel, probably by tomorrow,” the source said.

The ship was held because the “condition of the vessel, its equipment, crew and the working and living conditions of seafarers did not meet the requirements outlined in the applicable relevant statutory instruments”, the Gibraltar Maritime Administration said in a statement.

The MR2 tanker specialised in moving Russian products after it was sold by Oslo-based Atlantica Shipping in November 2022 and became part of a Gatik fleet that grew to about 60 ships.

The ship has called at the Russian ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk since the imposition of the oil product price cap in February last year and hauled cargoes to non-European destinations. It has also been active in STS transfers, predominantly off West Africa, Kpler data suggests.

Opaque ownership structure

Fast-growing Mumbai-based Gatik, with an opaque ownership structure and reported links with Russia’s Rosneft, drew scrutiny from regulators and led to the vessels in the fleet shifting to other commercial and technical managers.

The Electra was sold to Gardsea, a United Arab Emirates-based affiliate of Gatik that no longer has any ships, and was initially commercially managed by Gatik, according to Equasis.

The vessel is now listed as owned and managed by Gordian Shipping & Marine, a single-ship company based in the Marshall Islands, according to Equasis.

Indian-based Galena Ship Management, based in Thane, a suburb of Mumbai, is listed as the technical manager of the ship. It currently has five vessels under technical management, all previously tied to Gatik.

The wages problem is just the latest headache for the Gatik-linked fleet after the Indian operator burst into the limelight with its rapid spending spree.

The scrutiny of Gatik led to the loss of Western class and insurance services. St Kitts & Nevis registry also deflagged Gatik-linked vessels, including the Electra, which is now flagged by Gabon.

It was last inspected by port state control in September 2022 in Chile, according to Equasis. The ship is due for dry-docking in two months.

The dispute over wages on the Electra followed the detention of another Gatik-linked ship, the 73,741-dwt Galatia (built 2005), in July after inspectors identified 22 defects, the Antwerp port state control said. It had also been involved in lifting Russian oil.

Authorities in Antwerp said they also investigated potential European Union sanctions breaches linked to STS operations involving the tanker — but said the vessel was held purely on technical grounds.

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