After the publication of the ARC study on the Russian tanker fleet, which caused an environmental disaster in the Black Sea, the Head of the Institute for Strategic Black Sea Studies and an expert of the International Crimea Platform Andriy Klymenko provided our Association with a comment.
Comparing the situation regarding the actions of the Russian tanker fleet in the Baltic and Black Seas, Andriy Klymenko indicated that “analogies can be found in any seas. There are also such in the situations in the Baltic and Black Seas in the context of the Kerch disaster. There are no “river-sea” type vessels in the Baltic, but there is… raid transshipment, as in the Kerch Strait and south of it, where the accident of fuel oil tankers occurred.”
The expert specified that the Baltic Sea transshipment area is an zone east and west of the point with coordinates 59°52’26” N, 25°56’49” E. It is located approximately 12 miles from the coast of Estonia and 18 miles from the coast of Finland outside the territorial sea of these countries, but probably in their exclusive maritime economic zones.
Andriy Klymenko indicated that there are several processes there, in particular, a waiting area when ships, not only tankers, go to Russia, there is bunkering there, including by bunkerers from Russia, where ships refuel, receive water, and possibly other supplies. The expert also specified that “there we recorded several cases of raid transshipment, when tankers with crude oil and petroleum products leave Russian ports and hang around there for many days until they are unloaded onto small… and go back.”
Regarding the challenges to maritime safety and the environment, Mr. Klymenko pointed out, that “everyone has noticed that reports of technical problems with tankers from the Baltic have “gone haywire” in recent weeks.” The expert recalled the emergency situation with the tanker “Eventin” with IMO number 9308065, which occurred on January 10 at a distance of 12 miles from the coast of Germany near the island of Rügen, that is, on the border of the territorial sea.
“There was and still is a huge risk that a vessel with a deadweight of 150 thousand tons (this is exactly 1 million barrels), a length of 274.3 and a width of 48.04 meters, with a draft of about 15 meters, which is completely uncontrollable, will be thrown ashore or run aground or underwater objects, or collide with other vessels,” the expert added.
Andriy Klymenko also recalled the incident with the tanker “Jazz” with IMO number 9337327, which was heading from the Russian port of Vysotsk with cargo to Tunisia, and on January 11 experienced an engine failure north of the German island of Rügen.
Then the tanker drifted for a couple of hours and the German emergency command in Cuxhaven called in the rescue tug “Baltic”, which was nearby to tow the disabled tanker “Eventin”. The expert adds that after the initial troubleshooting at 3 am, problems arose again north of the island, and the tanker failed again, and then it set off again with limited operation.
Andriy Klymenko also recalled the emergency situation at the end of December last year, which occurred a few days after the same tanker “Jazz” had an engine failure south of the Finnish port of Hanko and drifted for a long time at sea. At that time, it was sailing without cargo, carrying oil products to the Russian Vysotsk.
“The tug and the ship “Turva” of the Finnish Coast Guard were then sent to the scene, and “Turva” was standing nearby from the afternoon of December 30, there was a risk that the ship’s anchor would not hold if the winds became too strong,” the expert added.
Andriy Klymenko pointed out that the tanker “Eagle S” with IMO number 9329760, detained on December 25 by the Finnish Coast Guard for sabotage against critical infrastructure and subsequently arrested, “as revealed by the inspection of the state port control, had 32 technical malfunctions, three of which jeopardized the safety of navigation. In particular, these are problems with fire safety, navigation equipment and ventilation of the pump room”.
The expert points out that this tanker was on the Gray List of the Paris Memorandum and the Black List of the Tokyo Memorandum. Klimenko writes that the thesis that all tankers over 15 years old are “old tankers with poor technical condition” is unprofessional.
In fact, the expert adds, “the main criterion for the technical condition of a tanker is its presence or absence in the “white lists”, “black lists” or “gray lists” of international port control memoranda”, such as the Paris or Tokyo ones.
Klymenko points out that in September 2024, out of 99 tankers transporting Russian crude oil from the ports of the Baltic Sea, 28 were on the “black lists” of international port control memoranda, that is, they had serious problems with their technical condition, and another 37 were on the “gray lists” of port control memoranda, that is, they had problems with their technical condition that can be eliminated.
At the same time, the largest number of tankers on the “black lists” belonged to shipowners from flag of convenience countries, as well as Azerbaijan and India.
Regarding measures to counter the above-mentioned challenges to the marine environment and security, Andriy Klimenko recalled that on October 24, the Third Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform was held in Riga, which brought together delegations from over 30 countries of the world in the Latvian capital.
The expert added that “it was at this event that the Ukrainian delegation (its expert part) first disseminated this report of ours” on the Russian tanker fleet and expressed confidence that the topic of maritime exports of oil and petroleum products will continue to be used at the events of the International Crimea Platform.
The expert also expressed confidence in the feasibility of the proposal to apply and strengthen existing sanctions against classification societies (“maritime registers”) that facilitate the activities of the Russian tanker fleet.
