Explosions On Tanker Carrying Russian Oil Occur In Italian Port
- 18.02.2025, 12:22
The tanker suffered hull damage below the waterline.
Two explosions occurred on the Seajewel oil tanker moored in the port of the Italian city of Savona, Fatto Quatidiano reports. According to the newspaper, it happened in the evening of 14 February, when the ship arrived from Algeria under the flag of Malta and its crew began unloading oil. The tanker suffered hull damage below the waterline, but there was no oil spill, The Moscow Times said. None of the crew members were injured.
The Savona prosecutor's office is considering different versions of the incident, including the breakdown of the tanker, collision or explosion of ammunition. Meanwhile, as IVG specifies, the nature of the breach indicates the probable planting of explosive devices on the vessel. The port authority also said that ‘some anomalies’ were noticed during the unloading of oil, in connection with which technical checks are currently being carried out at the vessel. Before that ‘Ukrainska Pravda’ wrote that the Seajewel tanker had repeatedly transported Russian oil. In particular, in 2024, it was loaded three times in Russia and returned back for a new cargo. During one of the voyages, the vessel was spotted while unloading in the Romanian port of Constanta after arriving from the Turkish port of Ceyhan. After that, according to Ukrayinska Pravda's sources, the tanker was supposed to head to the port of Novorossiysk.
On 9 February, an explosion occurred in the engine room of the Koala tanker, which was at the port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad Region. There were 130 thousand tonnes of fuel oil on board. The head of the region, Alexander Drozdenko, said that there had been a ‘technogenic incident’ when the tanker's engine was started. There were four Russians, eight Georgian citizens and 12 Indonesians on board. They were all evacuated, no one was injured. No leaks of oil products were detected, the Ministry of Transport said later.
The Koala tanker is owned by Dahlia International Co of Liberia and operated by Lagosmarine Limited of Cyprus. According to the US Treasury Department, the latter ensures the operation of the Kremlin's ‘shadow fleet’, which is used to circumvent restrictions against Russian oil. The firm fell under President Joe Biden's ‘farewell’ sanctions on 10 January.