The Defence Forces has deployed an aircraft to monitor a vessel from Russia’s so called “shadow fleet” which has appeared in Irish-controlled waters.
The military has designated the Metagas Everest tanker, which is also known as the Everest Energy, a “vessel of interest”.
The Defence Forces had been observing its progress through international waters for at least a week before launching an airborne surveillance mission on Tuesday morning.
The ship, which is under US and UK sanctions, flies the flag of Curacao, an island nation in the Caribbean, but is believed by authorities to be regularly used by Russia to evade international embargoes placed on Moscow in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
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Metagas Everest is designed for the transport of liquid natural gas. It left the Russian port of Umba, near Finland, last month, according to open-source ship tracking software.
The Defence Forces is concerned the ship may be transiting through the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) while breaching international sanctions.
There are also concerns about the seaworthiness of the 22-year-old vessel. Many ships in Russia’s shadow fleet are known to be in a poor state of repair and can pose serious environmental hazards, especially if they are transporting large amounts of fuel.
On Tuesday morning the Defence Forces deployed an Irish Air Corps maritime patrol aircraft to shadow the vessel as it transited down the west coast. The ship is in the Irish EEZ but has not entered Irish territorial waters.
The Irish aircraft, one of the Air Corps’ newly acquired Airbus C295 patrol aircrafts, is outfitted with sophisticated surveillance equipment capable of monitoring vessels from a large distance. Its primary role is to monitor the Metagas Everest and keep track of its location. It is understood the Defence Forces may deploy a naval vessel to escort the ship through Irish-controlled waters.
The Metagas Everest has been repeatedly turning its transponder, known as an automatic identification system (AIS), on and off, meaning it is occasionally invisible to monitoring services. However, it has not otherwise engaged in suspicious behaviour since the surveillance operation was launched, sources said.
[ Naval Service goes to sea without working guns as maritime threats mountOpens in new window ]
The “Maritime Domain Security Operation” is being run from Defence Forces Headquarters and involves personnel from all branches.
Vessels from Russia’s shadow fleet have been accused of sabotaging undersea cables in European waters on several occasions in recent months.
The 94,000-tonne Metagas Everest is the subject of sanctions over suspicions it has been used to transport natural gas from Russia to other countries in breach of international embargoes. The UK banned the ship from its ports in 2019.
The UK government said the vessel, which was then called the Everest Energy, was involved is “activity whose object or effect is to destabilise Ukraine” or “undermine its independence”.
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