Vilamoura oil, at the Valero terminal in Milford Haven, Pembroke, on October 26, 2016. Photo: Derek Phillips / Alamy / Profimedia
An explosion took place on board the Vilamoura oil tank, which transports about 1 million barrels of crude oil in the Russian ports, near the coast of Libya, writes Bloomberg. The incident took place on June 27, according to Reuters.
The explosion has flooded the Oil Motor Hall, a representative of the Greek TMS Tankers has announced. It is not clear what caused the incident. The explosion on the ship did not cause environmental pollution, and the crew members were not injured, the company representative added. The oil is currently towed to Greece, where the extent of the damage will be evaluated on the arrival, notes the Russian edition of the independent publication The Moscow Times on Monday.
At the beginning of April, according to ship tracking applications, Vilamoura landed in the Russian port and loaded oil from Kazakhstan. In May, the oil visited the Terminal Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) near Novorossiysk, which loads Kazakh fuel. The reported explosion took place when Vilamoura sailed from the Libyan Port Zeitin to Gibraltar.
According to Vanguard Tech, a consulting company in the field of maritime risks, four other ships that have recently approached in Russian ports have been damaged by explosions from the beginning of this year until now.
After that, the owners began to check their explosive explosive vessels, using the help of underwater divers and vehicles.
At the end of January, the Seacharm oil (operated by Theamaris) was damaged near the Turkish port Ceyhan. In February, an explosion also took place off the coasts of Libya, on the Grace Ferrum ship, carrying chemicals under the Liberian flag. Due to the serious damage, the authorities were forced to carry out a rescue operation. The ship was operated on by Cymmar Cypriot company.
Also, on February 15, in the Italian port Savona, after two explosions, the Seajewel oil, owned by Thenamaris, suffered from the hinge (the outside of a ship, which is below the waterline). There were no injured persons and no oil leaks were recorded. The Prosecutor's Office in Savona takes into account various causes of the incident, including an explosion of ammunition, wrote the Italian Fatto Quotidiano. According to Ukrainska Pravda, Seajewel is part of Russia's “ghost fleet” and transports oil to Europe despite sanctions.
And on February 9, an explosion was produced in the Koala oil engine room, which was anchored in the port of UTT-luga with 130 thousand tons of fuel on board. During the engine start, there was a “incident caused by man”, said the head of the Leningrad region, Alexander Drozdenko. The four Russian citizens, eight Georgian citizens and 12 Indonesians who were on the oil were not injured and no leaks were recorded. According to the American Treasury department, the company operating the Koala oil tank – Cypriot Society Lagosmarine Limited – is involved in the operation of the Kremlin.
