President Vladimir Putin ordered the establishment of a working group led by Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Saveliev to handle the incident, and authorities are investigating charges of criminal negligence.
It is reported that rescue and clean-up operations are underway with tugboats, helicopters, and more than 50 personnel being deployed.
Rosmorrechflot, the Russian Federation’s maritime and inland transport agency, said in a statement: “Today, storms hit the Black Sea and two oil tankers, Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, were damaged. “It sank,” he said.
He added, “There were 15 and 14 crew members on board the ship,” adding, “In this accident, petroleum products leaked.”
Michelle Bockmann, an analyst with shipping industry journal Lloyd’s List, said the two vessels are owned by the Volgatanker company and can each carry about 3,500 tonnes of oil.
Tankers are relatively small, Bockmann told the BBC. She said tankers used to trade Russian crude oil internationally typically have a much larger carrying capacity of about 120,000 tonnes.
She said the damaged tanker was likely used to transport oil through Russia’s rivers or coastal waters.
The full extent of the oil spill and the exact fate of the two vessels remain unclear.
The Kerch Strait is a key passage for Russian grain exports and is also used for the export of crude oil, fuel oil, and liquefied natural gas.
In 2007, another oil tanker owned by the same company, the Volgoneft-139, split in half during a storm while anchored in the Kerch Strait, spilling more than 1,000 tons of oil.
Russia’s oil imports have been subject to strong sanctions from Ukraine’s allies since the Kremlin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In recent years, Russia has been accused of using so-called ghost fleets that are poorly maintained and without adequate insurance to transport oil and evade sanctions. Part of that fleet.
