By AFP
January 10, 2025
The 274-meter-long Eventin, carrying almost 100,000 tonnes of oil, was adrift and 'unable to manoeuver' in the Baltic Sea - Copyright AFP YASUYOSHI CHIBA
Germany was racing Saturday to secure a heavily loaded tanker stranded off its northern coast, towing the stricken ship it said was part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” away from shore to avert an oil spill.
The 274-metre-long Eventin was sailing from Russia to Egypt with almost 100,000 tonnes of oil on board when its engine failed and it lost the ability to manoeuvre, according to Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies.
As the vessel drifted in coastal waters Friday, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock slammed Russia’s use of “dilapidated oil tankers” to avoid sanctions on its oil exports, calling it a threat to European security.
Three tugs have linked up with the Eventin and are attempting to steer it northeast, away from the coast and toward a “safer” area where there is “more sea space”, the command said.
It said it had taken “safety measures” due to rough seas, with 2.5-metre-high (8 feet) waves and strengthening wind gusts.
The ship was intercepted off the island of Ruegen, having come within 14 kilometres (9 miles) of the coast.
No oil leaks were detected by several surveillance overflights, authorities said Friday, and responders have passed radios and flashlights to the stranded crew.
It will take around eight hours to pull the Eventin roughly 25 kilometres to safer waters northeast of Cape Arkona, the command said early Saturday, adding they expected it to arrive by mid-morning.
– ‘Rusty tankers’-
Although the tanker was navigating under the Panamanian flag, the German foreign ministry linked it to Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet”.
Baerbock said that “by ruthlessly deploying a fleet of rusty tankers, (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is not only circumventing the sanctions, but is also willingly accepting that tourism on the Baltic Sea will come to a standstill” in the event of an accident.
Following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, Western countries have hit Russia’s oil industry with an embargo and banned the provision of services to ships carrying oil by sea.
In response, Russia has relied on tankers with opaque ownership or without proper insurance to continue lucrative oil exports.
The number of ships in the “shadow fleet” has exploded since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to US think tank the Atlantic Council.
In addition to direct action against Russia’s oil industry, Western countries have moved to sanction individual ships thought to be in the shadow fleet.
The European Union has so far sanctioned over 70 ships thought to be ferrying Russian oil.
The United States and Britain on Friday moved to impose restrictions on around 180 more ships in the shadow fleet.
New oil spill detected in Black Sea from stricken Russian tanker
By AFP
January 10, 2025
Russian teams have been clearing up beaches off the Black Sea since December - Copyright POOL/AFP Brendan McDermid
Fresh oil started pouring from a stricken Russian tanker in the Black Sea on Friday, said officials in Moscow, as Ukraine warned of “terrible environmental consequences” from the spill.
Heavy fuel oil has been washing up on hundreds of kilometres of beaches along Russia’s southern coast and on the annexed peninsula of Crimea since two ageing Russian tankers were caught in a storm in the Kerch strait on December 15.
One of the vessels, Volgoneft-212, sank, and another, Volgoneft-239, ran aground and broke apart.
“While inspecting the stern part of the Volgoneft-239 this morning, specialists discovered an oil slick of about 2,800 square metres on the shore,” Russia’s transport ministry said on social media.
The vessel is beached near the port of Taman in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, across the Kerch Strait from Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
Images published by the Russian cleanup task force showed thick black fuel running from the stranded vessel along the beach.
Russia said earlier in January that some 2,400 tonnes of mazut had been spilt by the two tankers, which were loaded with 9,200 tonnes between them.
Mazut is a heavy fuel oil that is difficult to clean up as it does not float on the surface.
– ‘International irresponsibility’ –
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called it one of the “most serious environmental challenges” Russia has faced in recent years. Hundreds of birds and dozens of marine animals have died.
Ukraine on Friday slammed Russia for failing to handle the spillage.
Foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy accused Russia of “international irresponsibility”.
By trying to “conceal the terrible environmental consequences” Moscow had left the entire Black Sea region vulnerable to the fallout, he said.
More than 147,000 tonnes of contaminated sand and soil have been removed from beaches in southern Russia and Crimea so far.
Oil slicks have been detected as far as away as the Crimean city of Sevastopol, around 250 kilometres (155 miles) from the site of the incident.
Maya Meshkarudnik, a volunteer trying to save birds covered in oil told AFP the “smell of fuel oil” was hanging in the air at her country house, 15 kilometres from Anapa, a resort town heavily affected by the spillage.
Almost four weeks after the incident, Putin on Thursday criticised local officials’ clean-up operation — which has relied on thousands of volunteers shovelling sand and soil off beaches.
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