France Ends Weeks of Detention for Shadow Fleet Tanker with a Fine
French authorities confirmed that the Marseille Judicial Court has ended the detention of the shadow fleet tanker Grinch, which had been held for nearly four weeks. The owners of the vessel filed an admission of guilt that the vessel was operating without a flag of registry and paid a fine.
The Foreign Minister of France, Jean-Noel Barrot, reported the fine would be “several million euros.” He also cited “three weeks of costly immobilization at Fos-sur-Mer,” which would have a significant financial impact on the vessel’s operations.
Last fall, French President Emmanuel Macron had called for these types of detentions of the shadow fleet, saying that even a few days would prove costly to the vessel’s operations and upset the economics of the shadow fleet operation. He presented this approach to the European Union as one of the steps that would help to curtail the sanction violations from the Russian oil industry.
“Bypassing European sanctions comes at a price. Russia will no longer be able to fund its war with impunity through a ghost fleet off our coasts,” said Barrot, announcing the release of the tanker.
The Marseille Judicial Court sentenced the owners of the vessel on February 16 during an appearance on the admission of guilt. In exchange for the payment of the monetary fine, the court agreed to end the confiscation and return the seized and confiscated assets. The owner was reported to have failed to justify the nationality of the ship (i.e. confirm its flag of registry) and pledged to obtain a new registry “as soon as possible.”
Contourner les sanctions européennes a un prix. La Russie ne financera plus impunément sa guerre via une flotte fantôme au large de nos côtes. Le pétrolier Grinch va quitter les eaux françaises après plusieurs millions d’euros versés et 3 semaines d’immobilisation coûteuse à… pic.twitter.com/Z4LI0l65e4
— Jean-Noël Barrot (@jnbarrot) February 17, 2026
The French Navy interdicted the Grinch on January 22 while it was in the Alboran Sea, coming from Murmansk, Russia. At the time, they reported there were doubts over the registry of the vessel, which were confirmed during an inspection. The matter was handed over to the court, and the tanker was directed to the anchorage in the Gulf of Fos Sur Mer near Marseille. The ship had been at anchor since January 24, with some reports that it briefly drifted and grounded in the bay.
The captain of the ship, a 58-year-old Indian national, was also arrested on charges including a lack of cooperation and operating the vessel without its registry. He is scheduled to go on trial later this month.
Databases show the Grinch (115,635 dwt) was built in 2004 and claimed a registry in Comoros, which is listed as false. The tanker is reported to be owned by a shell corporation registered in the Marshall Islands. No inspections have been reported since December 2023, and the Indian Registry of Shipping reports class was withdrawn, with renewal listed as overdue since October 2025.
The tanker was sanctioned by the United States in January 2025 for violations of the G7 price cap on Russian oil, and that was followed by the EU in February and the UK in July. Canada and Switzerland have also sanctioned the tanker.
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The tanker’s AIS signal shows that as of Tuesday afternoon, February 17, it is still anchored in French waters. The court ordered that the vessel would remain under the supervision of the Maritime Prefect of the Mediterranean until it exited French territorial waters.
It is the second time that France has detained and released a shadow fleet tanker. In September 2025, it stopped the tanker Boracay, also on suspicion of operating under a false flag. The captain was ordered to appear before a French court, and the vessel was released after a few days of detention.