Fully Laden Shadow Fleet Tanker Breaks Down in Baltic Storm
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On Friday, German response authorities had to deploy multiple tugs to rescue a broken-down shadow fleet tanker laden with Russian oil, sparking a small political furor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to Germany’s Central Command for Maritime Emergencies, the Eventin <\/em>– formerly part of the Fractal Marine DMCC fleet – was under way from Russia to Egypt with about 100,000 tonnes of crude oil aboard. Off the coast of Ruegen, Germany, Eventin <\/em>lost power and ability to maneuver, and it began to drift.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It is precisely this scenario that I have repeatedly warned against together with my colleagues from the Baltic region,” said German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Friday. “Russia is endangering our European security not only with its war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law, but also with severed cables, moved border buoys, disinformation campaigns, GPS jammers, and also with dilapidated oil tankers.”<\/p>\n The agency’s Accident Command took over overall command of the operation, and it determined that an evacuation of the crew was not immediately necessary. The response vessel Arkona and the salvage tug Bremen Fighter were dispatched to attend to the stricken vessel and halt its drift. The command also put the response tug Bremen on standby and activated a boarding team trained to deploy via helicopter and assist with making a tow connection.\u00a0
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\nAt about 1500 hours, the Bremen Fighter <\/em>made up a towline to the Eventin<\/em> and successfully brought the ship’s movement under control.\u00a0However, the salvage\u00a0was not yet over, and the responders had to contend with the difficult weather conditions of the Baltic in winter. Winds on scene were at Beaufort 7\u00a0as of Friday afternoon and were expected to strengthen as high as Beaufort 9 (strong gale, 41-47 knots). To provide additional holding power, two additional tugs, the Bremen<\/em> and the VB Luca,<\/em> were chartered by the shipowner to assist. The emergency response tug Baltic <\/em>has also been ordered to reposition from the western Baltic Sea to a location nearer the scene as a precautionary measure.\u00a0<\/p>\n