Taman, Russia (Ports Europe) December 16, 2024 – The disaster of December 15 with the two very old Russian tankers in the Kerch Strait that connects the Azov and the Black Seas is not the worst in the Strait between Moscow-occupied Ukrainian Crimea and Russia’s mainland. With the onset of the storm season, which starts in November, the Kerch Strait turns into a real trap for ships.
Russian oil tanker split in two, another one is sinking in Kerch Strait
As of January 1, 2023, the global oil tanker fleet had an average age of 20.1 years. It was only a matter of time before such a tragedy and environmental disaster was to happen, with Russia using very old and in need of urgent repairs vessels to bypass Western sanctions.
The 55-year-old Russian, 136-metre-long oil tanker Volgoneft 212, carrying over 4,000 tonnes of oil products, split in two during a heavy storm on December 15 and continued to spill oil into the water on the following day. Another tanker, the 51–year–old, 132–metre–long Volgoneft-239, was also badly damaged by powerful waves and is sinking 80 meters from shore near Russia’s port of Taman. It also carried some 4,000 tonnes of oil products.
A total of about 3,000 tonnes of heavy oil spilled into the Black Sea from the two tankers.
Environmental disaster
Green Peace warned that the two shipwrecks could create one of the largest environmental disasters in the Black and Azov seas. The bad weather prevented the sailors from Volgoneft-239 from being evacuated, making collecting the spilt oil almost impossible. The Russian specialised fleet is outdated and badly maintained. It also lacks people who were sent to fight in Ukraine.
The Kerch Strait does not have modern navigation equipment. Sailing there is complicated by the measures taken by Moscow since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Russian ships restrict their communications and often move without switched-on transponders. The construction of the Kerch bridge affected the currents and changed the sediment accumulation patterns. Dredging has not been performed in years.
Black November 2007
So far, the worst ship disaster regarding the number of damaged vessels remains the one that began on November 11, 2007. Then, in the Kerch Strait, the wind speed reached 32 meters per second, and the waves were up to 9 metres high. In just one day, four ships were wrecked.
The first was Volgoneft-139 (built in 1978) with about 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil. It was at anchor early in the morning when it broke in half. The ship’s bow remained where the anchor was dropped, and the stern, together with the crew, drifted along the strait and reached the Tuzla Spit. 1.3 thousand tons of fuel oil ended up in the sea. All the sailors were successfully evacuated.
Around 10:30, the sea destroyed the dry cargo ship Volnogorsk, carrying 2,600 tonnes of sulfur. Volnogorsk hit and caused the sinking of another dry cargo ship Kovel, which was also carrying sulfur, At 19:00, it completely disappeared under the waves. The crew was rescued.
The third dry cargo ship, the Nakhichevan, also carrying sulfur, sank during the night. Only three of the 11 people on board were saved.
Another tanker, the Volgoneft-123, was also damaged by the storm, but survived, with a crack in the hull. Fortunately, there was no leak of oil products from it. Near the Tuzla Spit, a barge and a floating sea crane ran aground.
In the same storm, tugboat ran aground not far from the regional centre of Chernomorskoye, northwest of Crimea, then still Ukrainian. The dry cargo ship Khash-Izmail sank in Sevastopol in Crimea. Only two of the 17 crew members were saved.
In the area of Kapsel Bay, near Sudak, the Ukrainian ship “Vera Voloshina” with a cargo of agricultural machinery, which was being transported from Romania to Novorossiysk, ran aground. All crew members were safely evacuated.
A total of 12 ships sank or ran aground during the storm on November 11-12, 2007, in the Kerch Strait and off the coast of Crimea – if you count the sea crane. The following year also began with a tragedy: on January 3, the Bulgarian vessel Vanessa sank in the Kerch Strait. It was sailing from Ukrainian Berdyansk with a cargo of scrap metal. Of the 11 crew members, one was saved.
Those tragedies also had environmental consequences. Oil products leaked into the water not only from the tanker – each of the sunken ships had its own fuel supply.
Grey ships, dark ships, shadow fleet
On May 23, Russian oil tanker Hera 1, part of the country’s shadow fleet of some 600 vessels, got stuck off the coast of Turkey, temporarily blocking the Dardanelles Strait. The ship was heading to India.
New accident with Russia’s shadow tanker fleet
The tanker was in poor technical condition, and its engine failed. As a result, the ship blocked traffic in the strategically important Dardanelles Strait, temporarily halting ship traffic heading south between the Black and Marmara seas.
After five hours, traffic was restored, and the tanker anchored. Hera 1 was en route to the Suez Canal, carrying 730,000 barrels of Russian crude oil, which were loaded in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
The insurer and the actual owner of the tanker were not registered in the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) database. Millions of barrels of Russian oil are being transported worldwide, often through narrow sea straits, without any information on who insures this transport or who is the actual owner of the vessel.
Tankers must have mandatory insurance from certified international insurers. Russia’s shadow fleet, consisting mostly of tankers that had to be scrapped and which is believed to be about 10% of the global large tankers, transports Russian oil in defiance of Western sanctions. Even industry experts cannot determine who the operators and owners of these ships are.
Ships transporting Russian oil are described as “grey ships” and “dark ships” or part of a “shadow fleet”. Grey ships were sold after Russia invaded Ukraine, mainly by owners in Europe, to companies in the Middle East and Asia that previously did not operate in the tanker market. Dark ships are veterans of operations conducted by Iran and Venezuela to evade Western sanctions and have recently switched to transporting Russian oil.
Russian oil ship-to-ship operations seek new ports in the Mediterranean Sea
Putin’s shadow fleet of old, uninsured oil tankers threatens the environment and security as long as it continues to transport Russian oil through the Baltic Sea, writes Karin Karlsbro MEP (Liberalerna, SE) with Baltic Liberal MEPs in an article originally published in Svenska Dagbladet on May 13.
More Ports Europe news about Russia’s use of shadow oil fleet
Background
Volgoneft-212 was built 55 years ago as a regular tanker, and in the 1990s it was “shortened” (cut) to “river-sea” standards. First, they cut out the middle section, and then welded the stern and bow, forming a huge seam in the middle. It was this seam that “came apart” after powerful wave impact.
This is the second such case. In 2007, the tanker “Volgoneft-139” sank. Then the waves also made a hole, and a crack appeared; the tanker literally broke into two parts and sank in just a few minutes.
This is this class’s most mass-produced series of tankers in the former Soviet Union (USSR) and Russia. They are exploited as much as possible. The company Kama Shipping, which owns the sunken tanker, is unprofitable. In 2023, its debt was 14 million rubles (some 200,000 euro).
Russia’s grey fleet, which transports oil around the world despite sanctions, is being persecuted precisely because of security threats due to the unsafe condition of its old ships.
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