The oil spill which formed in the Kerch Strait, between Russia and annexed Crimea, after the sinking of two Russian oil tankers in mid-December continues to spread and has now reached the city of Sevastopol. Here’s what we know about this oil accident.
Two tankers run aground
The two tankers stranded in mid-December during a storm contained 9,200 tonnes of fuel oil, of which at least 26%, according to the latest estimate by the Russian authorities, could have leaked into the sea. Since the start of this oil spill, some 200,000 tonnes of soil may have been affected, according to authorities.
Russia’s regional clean-up organization released images of volunteers removing polluted sand using shovels.
“The local authorities provided certain equipment,” confirms Iryna Babanina, of the British NGO Conflict and Environment Observatory, specialist in the consequences of war on the environment.
But carrying out operations directly on the water to prevent oil slicks from advancing is “impossible” due to a “shortage of equipment”, she emphasizes.
These shipwrecks constitute “the first accident in the world involving “heavy” fuel oil of M100 quality,” declared the Russian service responsible for sea rescues. A type of fuel oil which “does not float on the surface” and for which “it does not “There is no proven water disposal technology in the world.” “This is why the main method is collection on the coast,” says the same source.
Cooperation prevented by war
The Black Sea is protected by the Bucharest Convention (1992), which provides for “cooperation in the fight against oil pollution”, explains Mme Their mother.
In 2007, Ukraine and Russia cooperated to stem a similar oil spill in the same area.
Today, “the deployment of special ships or planes is made impossible” by the war, says Mme Babanina, according to whom “the exchange of information” between Ukraine and Russia “is also problematic”.
“Only satellite images can provide a more or less reliable overview,” adds the specialist.
Analyzes of satellite images by Roscosmos, the agency responsible for the Russian civil space program, and by the Canadian Ministry of the Environment, consulted by Agence France-Presse, show possible expanses of oil in the Kerch Strait between the 18 and December 23, and near Anapa, a seaside resort in southwest Russia, on December 19.
A more recent image, published and analyzed on December 31, shows a possible expanse of oil three kilometers south of Cape Meganom, in annexed Crimea.
“Ecological disaster”
Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized at the end of December that it was an “ecological disaster”.
Other oil disasters have led to much larger spills, such as the 64,000 tonnes of fuel oil from the tanker Prestige spilled in 2002 off the coast of Spain, but the geographical characteristics of the Kerch Strait make the situation unique.
The proximity of the Sea of Azov, located on the other side of the strait, is a cause for concern.
This “very shallow” sea is more conducive to “temperature changes”, experiencing “freezing in winter and rapid warming in spring”. The situation therefore requires “prolonged monitoring”, maintains Iryna Babanina.
In 2007, the 2,000 tonnes of fuel oil spilled in the Kerch Strait caused the death of tens of thousands of birds and fish, according to the authorities.
Increased risk of oil accidents?
“Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil logistics may have pushed the Russians to use obsolete ships,” says Mme Their mother.
“Russia used fairly old Volgoneft series tankers, typically used as near-shore river and sea vessels, re-equipped to operate at sea over greater distances,” she explains.
The two tankers stranded in mid-December were built more than 50 years ago.
Furthermore, “the use of traditional oil pipelines has been decreasing since 2022”, and “the official transport of oil by tankers from Russia is limited by international sanctions” targeting Moscow, recalls the specialist.
If the two ships stranded in mid-December were indeed registered in Russia, these various factors also favored the birth of a “ghost fleet of ships registered abroad”. Their security is managed in a vague manner, which constitutes a “time bomb for the environment”, underlines Iryna Babanina.
