Oil stains wash ashore after storm damages Russian oil tankers

Oil stains leaked into the sea after a storm damaged two Russian oil tankers in the Kerch Strait have washed up along dozens of kilometres of shoreline in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region on Tuesday, according to officials.

“This morning, fuel oil stains were discovered while monitoring the coastline. Oil products washed up on the shore over several dozen kilometres from the village of Veselovka in the Temryuk district to the village of Blagoveshchenskaya in Anapa,” the region’s governor Veniamin Kondratyev said.

The governor reported that 260 people have been deployed to clean up the coastline.

Videos circulating online on social media show oil washed up on the “Pearl of Russia” beach, while local media published images of birds completely covered in black oil.

The full extent of the damage is still unclear, although the spill could be one of the worst environmental disasters to hit the region in recent years.

Two Russian oil tankers, Volgoneft 239 and Volgoneft 212, were severely damaged during a storm near the Black Sea on Sunday. The vessels were carrying around 9,200 tonnes of mazut, a heavy, low-quality oil product.

One of the ships ran aground, tearing its bow, which caused it to split in half and sink. An estimated 3,700 tonnes of mazut spilled into the sea.

The vessel was carrying 13 crew members. According to officials, one sailor had died in the wreck. The other tanker had 14 crewmembers on board, all of whom were safely evacuated.

Both ships were more than 50 years old, which sparked concerns within the EU and in the shipping industry over Russia’s use of ageing tankers as part of its so-called ‘shadow fleet’.

Environmental concerns and EU sanctions

Oil remains a major source of income for funding the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. In 2022, the EU introduced a price cap of $60 (€57.2) per barrel for Russian crude oil, prohibiting Western companies from providing services to tankers selling oil above this limit.

In an attempt to circumvent the cap, Moscow created a ‘shadow fleet’ of ageing, uninsured tankers with unclear ownership and obscure insurance structures.

“To evade sanctions, the Russian ‘shadow fleet’ makes use of flags of convenience and intricate ownership and management structures while employing a variety of tactics to conceal the origins of its cargo,” the European Parliament said in a written statement.

Last week, the European Union issued new sanctions against Russia, targeting the ‘shadow fleet’ due to its environmental and safety risks.

The EU expressed concern that the poorly maintained vessels “operate with minimal regard to the regulations, poses significant environmental, maritime safety, and security risks.”