Russian tanker splits 'ecological catastrophe'

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Russian oil tanker splits in half

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The vessel, identified as Volga-Neft, split during a storm in the early hours of Sunday.


The accident took place on the border of Russian and Ukrainian territorial waters, Russia Today reported.


Emergency teams are heading to the site to rescue the 13 crew
members. All of them are reportedly alive and trapped on the front part
of the vessel, which is still adrift.


The storm has caused heavy winds and four-meter-high waves in the area.

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071111144943.gvbs6jpy&show_article=1&catnum=0"]Russian
environmentalists warned Sunday that a 1,300-tonne fuel oil spill from
a tanker smashed by high winds off the country's southern coast will
cause an "ecological catastrophe".

"This is a major ecological catastrophe," Vladimir Slivyak, head of
Ekozashchita, or Ecodefense, a Russian environmental group, was quoted
by Interfax news agency as saying.

[q
url="http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=071111130453.jb7gzhlb&show_article=1&catnum=0"]Five-metre
high waves smashed a Russian tanker in half on Sunday, spilling 1,300
tonnes of fuel oil into the Kerch Strait between Russia and Ukraine and
sank two other cargo ships, officials said.

Two vessels each carrying some 2,000 tonnes of sulphur went under
nearby and eight crew members were reportedly missing amid worsening
weather in waters between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

As wind speeds in the area reached 108-kilometre (67-mile) per hour,
several other ships were also reported damaged in and around Kavkaz, a
busy Russian commercial port some 1,200 kilometres (746 miles) south of
Moscow.

A total of 42 vessels have been evacuated from the port and 17
others have remained because of the risky weather conditions, Russian
news agencies reported, citing a spokesman for the Emergency Situations
Ministry.

There have been no reports of any deaths or injuries.

"This is a serious environmental accident that will require a large
amount of work," Oleg Mitvol, head of Russia's environmental monitoring
agency Rosprirodnadzor, said on the Vesti-24 news channel.

"This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed," he said.

"Five-metre high waves just broke the tanker in two," he added.

The prow and the stern of the oil tanker, called Volgoneft-139, tore
apart in the storm and "around 1,300 tonnes of fuel oil were spilled,"
a transport ministry spokeswoman told AFP.

Rescue efforts were being hampered by the harsh weather conditions
but the lives of the 11 crew members stranded in the stern of the
tanker were not in danger, the spokeswoman said.

Sunday's spill is however marginal when compared to the Prestige disaster off the Spanish coast five years ago.[/q]

[q
url="http://www.theage.com.au/news/World/Russian-tanker-oil-spill-a-disaster/2007/11/11/1194766503800.html"]A
severe storm broke a Russian oil tanker in two between the Azov and
Black Seas on Sunday, spilling fuel oil in what a Russian official said
was an "environmental disaster".

Russia's state-run Vesti-24 channel quoted the latest data from
state environment agency Rosprirodnadzor as saying some 2,000 tonnes of
fuel oil had spilt.

But Emergencies Ministry spokesman Viktor Beltsov told Reuters not more than 1,200 tonnes had leaked into the sea.

Thirteen crew members were drifting aboard the ship's stern and
several other ships were also in trouble in the Kerch strait, a busy
waterway running between the Azov and Black Seas.

Efforts to reach them were hampered by the storm, which was gaining force.

"The wind is now blowing in the direction of Ukraine's coast, so it
is our common problem," Oleg Mitvol, deputy head of Russia's
environment agency Rosprirodnadzor told Vesti-24.

"This problem may take a few years to solve. Fuel oil is a heavy substance and it is now sinking to the seabed," he said.

"This is a very serious environmental disaster."

The tanker, Volganeft-139, was on its way from the port of Azov in
the southern Russian region of Rostov to Kerch in Ukraine's eastern
Crimea when high waves broke its hull at around 0445 (0145 GMT) on
Sunday, Russian media reported.

The tanker, designed primarily for rivers and in service since 1978,
was carrying 4,000 tonnes of fuel oil in total, officials were quoted
by media as saying.[/q]