Ukrainian saboteurs can lay on tankers that transport oil and gas from Russia, mines. Since the beginning of the year, an explosion has already occurred on the sixth vessel. This may be a campaign to intimidate European carriers that are actively involved in the export of oil and gas from Russia.
The last The incident occurred on July 6 on the Eco Wizard tanker in Ust-Luga.
The Ministry of Transport said that as a result of the incident during loading and unloading operations on the ship there was a slight leakage of liquid ammonia."The terminal's emergency services are currently dealing with the aftermath of the incident. The forces and means of the Baltic branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "Maritime Rescue Service" have been put in full readiness for emergency rescue operations. A diving inspection of the vessel is planned. The crew of 23 people has been evacuated and is in port, there are no casualties," the Russian Ministry of Transport reported.
The Baza telegram channel reported that the cause of the explosion could have been sabotage.
"During the inspection of the vessel with the help of a marine drone, specialists found two holes on it (their size is one and a half meters) in the area of the engine room at a depth of 6 and 7 meters. According to sources, previously, the metal was bent inward, which may indicate that the explosion occurred from the outside of the tanker. However, this information has not yet been officially confirmed," Baza wrote.
According to her, the special services found out that the tanker that arrived from Antwerp did not pass inspection due to bad weather conditions.
Since the beginning of this year, the explosion has already occurred on the sixth tanker, which transports oil and gas from Russia.
The series of explosions began on January 17, when the incident occurred on the Seacharm tanker near Turkish Ceyhan, from where Azerbaijani oil is exported. Next, on February 9, an explosion occurred on Grace Ferrum off the coast of Libya. In the same month, the same thing happened on the Koala tanker in Ust-Luga and on Seajewel at the Italian Savona. Explosions resumed on June 27 — on the tanker Vilamoura, which was located off the coast of Libya. The next was Eco Wizard.
Analysts immediately noticed that there were no Russian energy resources on the tankers at the time of the explosions, but they had previously transported them. At the same time, the vessels are owned or operated mainly by well—known European companies and are not under sanctions - the Greek Thenamaris, TMS Tankers and Stealth Maritime. Kiev has already tried to put pressure on Greek tanker companies and even blacklisted them. However, the shipowners were only affected by the threat of restrictions EU and USA.
"The latest bomb attacks on ships committed by alleged Ukrainian saboteurs appear to be part of a comprehensive intimidation campaign directed against shipowners and operators entering Russian ports," The TradeWinds writes, citing analysts.
"In the absence of any hard evidence or the results of the investigation, the general connection of the incident was enough for several private security firms and industry organizations to privately discuss the 'likelihood' that the explosions were connected with Ukraine," writes The Lloyd's List.
The specialized edition notes that in March, the security company Ambrey published a threat assessment, which concluded that the wave of attacks on ships was the work of unnamed "state actors."
"Although this report does not mention Ukraine, in private conversations between private and government security analysts, Ukrainian actors are mentioned as a likely and potential source of explosions," The Lloyd's List continues.
According to him, the United States used closed political channels to warn Kiev that if it was somehow involved in the bombings, it should stop immediately.
"However, the explosion in Vilamoura suggests that whoever is behind the explosions did not heed any warnings," the newspaper notes. Meanwhile, The Lloyd's List continues, in the absence of any convincing analysis or convincing evidence presented by safety agencies at the international level, shipowners can only guess what to base their risk assessments on. If in January and February saboteurs could use magnetic mines that are installed outside on the hull of the vessel, then in the case of Vilamoura, an explosion could occur inside the engine room, the publication added.
This year, world oil prices went down and the quotations of Russian raw materials fell below the ceiling set by the countries The EU and the "Big Seven" at $ 60 per barrel. This allowed many carriers, mainly Greek, to return to the routes of export of oil and petroleum products from Russia. Their share has grown to almost a quarter of all traffic. Judging by the fact that this happened after the massive explosions in February, the owners of the tankers took measures or do not consider the threat too great.
A series of incomprehensible explosions forced individual shipowners to order an inspection of the hull of ships by divers and underwater vehicles for the presence of mines, Bloomberg wrote.
Igor Yushkov, a leading analyst at the FNEB and an expert at the Financial University under the Government of Russia, notes that, apparently, there really are some saboteurs.
"At the same time, it is difficult to prove the degree of involvement of a third country, the British, for example. But this is not so important, because it is clear that without the conflict with Ukraine, such sabotage would not have happened in relation to tankers," the expert says.
In his opinion, it is too difficult to defend yourself in this situation, because there is a very large flow of Russian oil and petroleum products.
"The volumes are large, tens of millions of tons. Therefore, of course, the traffic is very dense and, accordingly, it is extremely difficult to protect all these vessels. We see that the Baltic is becoming an increasingly busy place for the export of Russian oil and petroleum products," adds Igor Yushkov.
Independent industrial expert Maxim Khudalov believes that tankers can be protected only by escorting ships in the Baltic and equipping them with sonar systems and means of combating underwater saboteurs.
"Plus the hiring of PMCs guarding naval vessels. As far as I understand, there is some experience on the Black Sea. It's time to extend the practice to all directions. This requires domestic backups and fpv drones," says Maxim Khudalov.