(In the 3rd paragraph it must be Barbuda rpt Barbuda)
St. Petersburg (dpa -Afx) – In the morning, a Russian oil tanker in distress was in the Baltic Sea. The ship called “Koala” has 130,000 tons of heating oil on board, the “Baza” telegram channel reported. “According to our informants, there were several explosions in the machine room, according to which the ship filled with water,” reported the medium close to the Russian security organs.
The governor of the “Leningrad area” (surrounding area of St. Petersburg), Alexander Drosdenko, later confirmed an accident. According to it, the machine room was damaged when the engines were started. The accident occurred in the port of Ust-Luga near the west of St. Petersburg. All 24 crew members could have saved themselves ashore.
While “Baza” reported that the rear of the oil tanker finally ran onto a sandbar, the tanker could be moored at the investor, according to Dorbosdenko. Oil should not have expired. The ship officially runs under the flag of the Caribbean state Antigua and Barbuda. It is unclear whether it also belongs to the Russian shadow fleet, with which the country partially exports its oil.
Meanwhile, a tanker in distress has also come in the Far East of Russia. There, a Chinese ship near the island of Sachalin in the storm had run aground, the Interfax news agency reported. The tanker loaded coal and heavy oil. The authorities are preparing for any pumping.
In mid -December, two Russian oil tankers had dropped in the Black Sea. Both ships had invited thousands of tons of heating oil, which went to the sea to a considerable part. According to ecologists, the environmental damage will continue for years ./bal/dp/mis