Third tanker sends distress call as oil washes up on Russia's Black Sea coast

Spilt oil has washed up along “tens of kilometres” of the Russian Black Sea coast after two tankers were badly damaged in a storm at the weekend, a regional official said on Tuesday, and state media said a third ship was now in trouble.

TASS news agency said the third tanker had issued a distress signal but its hull was still intact, there was no oil spillage and the crew was safe.

RIA news agency said the tanker, Volgoneft 109, was safely stationed near the port of Kavkaz in the Kerch Strait, which runs between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

The first ship, the Volgoneft 212, split in half on Sunday in the strait. The second, the Volgoneft 239, ran aground 80 metres from the shore near the port of Taman on the east side of the strait.

The ships, both more than 50 years old, were carrying about 9,200 tonnes (62,000 barrels) of oil products in total, TASS reported, raising fears it could become one of the largest environmental disasters to hit the region in years.

A certificate seen by Reuters showed the third tanker was built in 1973 and was part of the same ageing fleet.

Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the southern Krasnodar region, said fuel oil had been found along the coast between the towns of Temryuk and Anapa.

“While monitoring the shoreline, stains of fuel oil were discovered. Oil products washed ashore for several tens of kilometres,” he said.

Authorities said a local state of emergency had been declared at four settlements in Temryuk district and one village in Anapa district because of spilt oil on the shoreline.

A video posted by Zvezda TV showed a black, oil-like substance along the coast at Anapa, and tarry stains along a beach strewn with tree branches.

TASS news agency, citing a scientist, said the nearby Kerch Strait, which separates Russia's Krasnodar region from the Crimean peninsula that Moscow annexed from Crimea in 2014, is an important area for migrating dolphins and other sea mammals.

“You can say they hit a key place,” Dmitry Glazov of the Institute of Ecology and Evolution was quoted as saying.

A video broadcast by state TV channel Vesti showed several birds covered with oil flapping their wings and struggling to fly.

The Kerch Strait is a key route for exports of Russian grain and fuel products.

Russia's natural resources and ecology ministry said on Monday fuel oil had leaked into the sea, but the scale of the spillage was still not clear.

Natural resources and ecology minister Alexander Kozlov said some of the fuel oil could have sunk to the seabed due to cold weather.

One member of the Volgoneft 212's crew was killed in Sunday's accident, while all 14 people on the Volgoneft 239 were rescued.

Reuters