December 15, 2024
According to news reports, 4300 tones of fuel oil and possibly other oil products are now being spilling into the waters of the Kerch Strait (connecting Black sea and Azov Sea) as a result of two fuel tankers hit by the storm. Both russian tankers were on the way to deliver fuel for russian navy with the Marine Traffic location system being switched off for 12 days already (tracking data from October 1st shown that the delivery route starts from Volgograd and ends in Kerch strait).
“Any oil or petrochemical spill in these waters has the potential to be serious. It is likely to be driven by prevailing wind and currents (moving now to the North-East) and in the current weather conditions is likely to be extremely difficult to contain. If it is driven ashore, then it will cause fouling of the shoreline which will be extremely difficult to clean up. Any environmental impact will depend on the type of oil spilled. Heavy residual fuel oils will tend to cause more visible damage than refined fractions and marine gas oil which will tend to disperse and break up quite rapidly. Given the potential for significant environmental impacts the focus should, after rescuing crew, be to try and minimize any further spillage if possible. If the ships sink, then there is the potential for releases of oil and petrochemicals over a longer time span.” – says Dr.Paul Johnston, Head of Greenpeace Research Laboratories, based at the University of Exeter in the UK.
This region has already suffered from an oil spill in 2007 when 1.2k tones of oil spilled from one russian ranker combined with other contamination. It resulted in severe damage of the environment, observed even a year after the accident.
Greenpeace Ukraine will continue monitoring the situation.
