The engine room was damaged by the tanker.
The heavily loaded Russian oil tanker Koala on Sunday came across a shallow in the Baltic Sea. The vessel transported 130,000 tons of fuel oil, the Russian -language channel BAZA, which has close links to Russian security services, said on the social network, reports TASR according to the DPA report.
“According to our sources, there were several explosions in the engine room, after which the ship was filled with water,” the channel said.
Alexander Drozdenko, the governor of the Leningrad region, later confirmed the accident. The engine room was damaged when the engines were started, he said. The accident occurred near the port of the Ust-Luga, about 150 kilometers west of St. Petersburg. All 24 crew members managed to safely ascend to the mainland.
The ship may be part of the shadow fleet
While the Baza channel reported that the tanker’s cormist encountered a sandy shore, the thrush said that the vessel managed to anchor on the pier without leaking oil into the water. The ship is officially sailed under the flag of Antigua and Barbuda. According to DPA, it is not clear whether it belongs to the so -called. Russia’s shadow fleet, which the country uses to circumvent international sanctions on oil exports.
Meanwhile, at the Russian Far East, another tanker encountered a shallow. According to Interfax news agency, the Chinese vessel got into difficulties in a storm near Sakhalin. The authorities were preparing for a possible drainage of a part of the cargo on the tanker, which transported coal and heavy fuel oil. Last December, two Russian tankers with thousands of tons of fuel oil sank in the Black Sea, causing large leaks to the sea and the coast. According to ecologists, environmental damage in the Kerch Strait, which separates Russia from Crimea, will persist for many years.
