Damaged Russian gas tanker drifts towards the coast of Libya

Libya has already hired a specialized company to tow the damaged Russian ship to the country’s shores.

This is reported by Reuters.

Thus, the National Oil Corporation of Libya said on March 21 that it had signed a contract with a specialized company to tow the stricken Russian gas tanker “Arctic Metagaz” to the country’s shores.

Last week, Italy, France, Spain and six other southern EU countries appealed to the European Commission with a warning that the tanker poses an “imminent and serious threat of a major environmental disaster.”

Libya’s National Operations Committee said that the environmental threat “can be largely controlled” and that an emergency department had been created to coordinate operations with relevant authorities. 

The ship, which was transporting LNG from the Arctic port of Murmansk, has been drifting without control since early March, when the Russian Transport Ministry said that it was hit by Ukrainian drones.

According to NOC, the vessel went out of control after sustaining damage off the coast of Libya and was gradually drifting towards shore due to a storm. The emergency contract was awarded through Mellitah Oil and Gas in cooperation with Italy’s Eni.

An Italian official said on March 20 that the tanker was estimated to be carrying 450 tons of heavy oil and 250 tons of diesel fuel (which it is fueled with), as well as an “undetermined” amount of liquefied natural gas, which is likely to have been partially regasified and dispersed.

USM previously reported that a Russian LNG tanker had stopped in the Mediterranean Sea after an attack on another gas carrier.