U.S. sells two ‘shadow fleet’ tankers for scrap. One switched to a Russian flag during its seizure.
The U.S. government has sold two sanctioned oil tankers it seized in January 2026, the trade publication Lloyd’s List reported.
The deal included the tanker Era — formerly called the Marinera and, before that, the Bella 1 — and the Lileo, previously known as the Galileo and the Veronika.
Global Marketing Systems (GMS), a Dubai-based ship recycling company, bought both tankers in July for an undisclosed sum.
The tankers will be scrapped at ship-breaking yards in India.
The U.S. military seized the tanker Bella 1 on January 7 in the northern Atlantic Ocean after a days-long pursuit. During the chase, the vessel — which had initially sailed under a Panamanian flag — switched to a Russian flag and renamed itself the Marinera. Washington stated that the tanker had been used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran.
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