The accident did not hinder: Russian tankers with invalid documents continue to transport oil
30.01.2025 - 11:49
After the Volgoneft tanker accident in December 2024, seven more similar vessels followed the same route.
A day after the tanker accident in the Kerch Strait, the Volgoneft-141 vessel reloaded more than 4,000 tons of fuel oil onto a storage tanker in the Kavkaz port, despite the current ban on entering the open sea. This is reported by “Crimean Wind”.
In total, at least seven Russian tankers went to sea after the accident in December 2024. At the same time, the operational documents of the vessels were expired, which casts doubt on the legality of their work.
A study of port documentation showed that the bulk of the oil products from the Volgoneft tankers were intended for Russia’s shadow tanker fleet. In 2024 and January 2025 alone, these vessels made almost 200 voyages from Rostov-on-Don to the port of Kavkaz and delivered about 800 thousand tons of oil products to storage tankers.
More than 80% of this oil (at least 660 thousand tons) was transshipped to tankers flying the flags of foreign states. The largest volumes of oil products were transferred to the “shadow” vessels Firn (279.6 thousand tons), Coatlicue (212 thousand tons), Triumph (53.5 thousand tons) and NS Parade (20.6 thousand tons).
As a reminder, on December 15, two Russian tankers were sinking in the Kerch Strait. The first tanker to suffer an accident was the Volgoneft-212, which was carrying 4 tons of oil. An hour later, the Volgoneft-239 was hit by a storm.
Then, as a result of the accidents, 4,300 tons of fuel oil and other petroleum products spilled into the sea.
As it turned out later, the fuel oil that spilled into the Black Sea as a result of the accident of the Russian tanker was intended for the vessel of the “shadow fleet” named “Firn”. At the same time, the transshipment area for the illegal transshipment of petroleum products to the ship Firn was located directly near the place where the tankers of the Volgoneft company were sunk.
The day before, USM reported that the EU was preparing new sanctions against more than 70 ships of the “shadow fleet” of Russia.
